special

special

1. denoting or relating to the education of physically or mentally handicapped children

2. Austral history slang a convict given special treatment on account of his education, social class, etc.

3. short for special constable

4. Austral, NZ, US and Canadian informal an item in a store that is advertised at a reduced price; a loss leader

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

SPECIAL

(language, specification)

A specification language developed at SRI around 1976.

["SPECIAL - A Specification and Assertion Language", L. Robinson et al, TR CSL-46, SRI, Jan 1977].

This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)

special

A very abused English word in the information industry. Phrases such as "it is a special type of format" or "it uses a special code for that purpose" are found frequently in documentation. However, anything that is newly created to solve a problem is merely another solution. What makes something special is that it is way out of the ordinary, not just one more approach to the same problem. See specialty software.

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