tense

   Of  programs,  very clever and efficient. A tense piece of code often
   got  that  way because it was highly tuned, but sometimes it was just
   based  on  a great idea. A comment in a clever routine by Mike Kazar,
   once  a grad-student hacker at CMU: "This routine is so tense it will
   bring  tears  to  your  eyes." A tense programmer is one who produces
   tense code.

[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {creeping elegance}{joe code}{Real Programmer}]