2 ms·
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=corner+case%2C+edge+case&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/
by 082349872349872 3y ago
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=corner+case%2C+edge+case&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=corner+case%2C...
suggests it's a low-dimension version of "corner case", which I believe comes from aerospace*. (both spike in 1947-1957, which, albeit possible, seems early for a software origin)
* compare "coffin corner": https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=corner+case%2Cedge+case%2C+coffin+corner&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=corner+case%2C...
- hairywalt 3y agoWhen I previously looked into the examples returned, most were accidental connections across a sentence boundary in scientific papers e.g. "Case 1 - both poles on the edge. Case 2 - ..." The ones that related to aerospace seemed to refer to leading edge and trailing edge which doesn't seem to fit the modern meaning?
- 082349872349872 3y agoI saw several corner cases related to civil engineering in the correct sense; I'll try to think of larger phrases that might be more specific... EDIT: or maybe not? they seem to be literally "edge" and "corner" cases (of slabs, not in parameter space) (...and "coffin corner" appears to have been from american football before aerospace?)
- hairywalt 3y agoYep, I'm struggling to find a use outside of computer science where I'm starting to suspect it originated