[very common]
1. The act of checking a piece of code (or anything else, e.g., a
Usenet posting) for completely stupid mistakes. Implies that the
check is to make sure the author was sane when it was written; e.g.,
if a piece of scientific software relied on a particular formula and
was giving unexpected results, one might first look at the nesting of
parentheses or the coding of the formula, as a sanity check, before
looking at the more complex I/O or data structure manipulation
routines, much less the algorithm itself. Compare {reality check}.
2. A run-time test, either validating input or ensuring that the
program hasn't screwed up internally (producing an inconsistent value
or state).
3. Conversationally, saying "sanity check" means you are requesting a
check of your assumptions. "Wait a minute, sanity check, are we
talking about the same Kevin here?"
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {reality check}]