tense
Of programs, very clever and efficient. A tense piece of code
often got that way because it was highly {bum}med, but
sometimes it was just based on a great idea. A comment in a
clever routine by Mike Kazar, once a grad-student hacker at
CMU: "This routine is so tense it will bring tears to your
eyes." A tense programmer is one who produces tense code.
[{Jargon File}]