[an error occurred while processing this directive]
NP-
![[prev]](../gif/left.gif)
![[up]](../gif/up.gif)
![[next]](../gif/right.gif)
NP- /N-P/ /pref./ Extremely. Used to modify adjectives
describing a level or quality of difficulty; the connotation is
often `more so than it should be' This is generalized from the
computer-science terms `NP-hard' and `NP-complete';
NP-complete problems all seem to be very hard, but so far no one
has found a good a priori reason that they should be. NP is
the set of Nondeterministic-Polynomial algorithms, those that can
be completed by a nondeterministic Turing machine in an amount of
time that is a polynomial function of the size of the input; a
solution for one NP-complete problem would solve all the others.
"Coding a BitBlt implementation to perform correctly in every case
is NP-annoying."
Return to Cool Jargon of the Day