any key

<humour, hardware>

The key that particularly confused users look for on their computer keyboards when instructed to "Press any key to continue". "But my keyboard doesn't have a key labelled 'any'!".

Compaq FAQ.

Last updated: 2003-09-30

anytime algorithm

<algorithm>

An algorithm that returns a sequence of approximations to the correct answer such that each approximation is no worse than the previous one, i.e. the algorithm can be stopped at _any time_.

Newton-Raphson iteration applied to finding the square root of a number b is another example: 

 x = (x + b / x) / 2
Each new x is closer to the square root than the previous one.

Applications might include a real-time control system or a chess program that is allowed a fixed thinking time.

Last updated: 2007-06-19

Nearby terms:

antivirus software ♦ ANTLR ♦ ANU ♦ ANU ML ♦ any key ♦ anytime algorithm ♦ ao ♦ AOCE ♦ AOL

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