orthogonal
Mutually independent; well separated; sometimes, irrelevant
to. Used in a generalisation of its mathematical meaning to
describe sets of primitives or capabilities that, like a
vector basis in geometry, span the entire "capability space"
of the system and are in some sense non-overlapping or
mutually independent.
In logic, the set of operators "not" and "or" is orthogonal,
but the set "nand", "or", and "not" is not (because any one of
these can be expressed in terms of the others).
Also used in comments on human discourse: "This may be
orthogonal to the discussion, but ..."
See also {orthogonal instruction set}.
[{Jargon File}]
(1994-12-21)