<jargon> 1. Said of a problem that, although nontrivial, can
be solved simply by throwing sufficient resources at it.
2. Also said of problems for which a solution would neither
advance the state of the art nor be fun to design and code.
Hackers regard uninteresting problems as intolerable wastes of
time, to be solved (if at all) by lesser mortals. *Real*
hackers (see toolsmith) generalise uninteresting problems
enough to make them interesting and solve them - thus
solving the original problem as a special case (and, it must
be admitted, occasionally turning a molehill into a mountain,
or a mountain into a tectonic plate).
See WOMBAT, SMOP. Compare toy problem. Oppose
interesting.
[Jargon File]
(1995-03-10)
Nearby terms:
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