Talk:Special case

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This article needs to be renamed, or at least retooled; "special case" is not computer science specific. To that end, I've separated the first sentence from the rest and added the words "For example". - dcljr 08:52, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

It seems like the example math and comp sci special cases have almost opposite connotations. In math, the special case of a circle obeys all rules of the generalization ellipse. In other words, if you are expecting ellipses, and some of them are circles, that does not present a problem (though it may present an opportunity for simplifications). OTOH, in the Comp Sci example, the usage of special case is often for the very purpose of identifying "edge cases" (maybe that is a better term?) that do in fact present problems when expecting the general case. So I am interested in a distinction between a benign special case, and a problematic special case. Erik Neu 16:19, 26 September 2007 (UTC)