A dry run is a testing process where the effects of a possible failure are intentionally mitigated. For example, an aerospace company may conduct a "dry run" test of a jet's new pilot ejection seat while the jet is parked on the ground, rather than while it is in flight.
In computer programming, a dry run is a mental run of a computer program, where the computer programmer examines the source code one step at a time and determines what it will do when run. In theoretical computer science, a dry run is a mental run of an algorithm, sometimes expressed in pseudocode, where the computer scientist examines the algorithm's procedures one step at a time. In both uses, the dry run is frequently assisted by a table (on a computer screen or on paper) with the program or algorithm's variables on the top.
The usage of "dry run" in acceptance procedures (for example in the so called FAT = factory acceptance testing) is meant as following: the factory - which is a subcontractor - must perform a complete test of the system it has to deliver before the actual acceptance from the contractor side.
Famous quotes containing the words dry and/or run:
“I have this very moment finished reading a novel called The Vicar of Wakefield [by Oliver Goldsmith].... It appears to me, to be impossible any person could read this book through with a dry eye and yet, I don’t much like it.... There is but very little story, the plot is thin, the incidents very rare, the sentiments uncommon, the vicar is contented, humble, pious, virtuous—but upon the whole the book has not at all satisfied my expectations.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)
“The only happy talkers are dandies who extract pleasure from the very perishability of their material and who would not be able to tolerate the isolation of all other forms of composition; for most good talkers, when they have run down, are miserable; they know that they have betrayed themselves, that they have taken material which should have a life of its own, to dispense it in noises upon the air.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)