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:#A piece of code, not yet written, whose anticipated length is significantly greater than its complexity. Used to refer to a program that could obviously be written, but is not worth the trouble. Also used ironically to imply that a difficult problem can be easily solved because a program can be written to do it; the irony is that it is very clear that writing such a program will be a great deal of work. “It's easy to enhance a FORTRAN compiler to compile COBOL as well; it's just a SMOP.”
:#Often used ironically by the intended victim when a suggestion for a program is made which seems easy to the suggester, but is obviously (to the victim) a lot of work. Compare ''[http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/M/minor-detail.html minor detail]''.
The IBM Jargon Dictionary<ref>[https://comlay.net/ibmjarg.pdf SMOP] IBM Jargon Dictionary, Tenth Edition 1990</ref> defines it as:
:<b>SMOP</b> <i>(smop) n.</i> Something quite possible, but requiring unavailable resources to achieve. “Why isn’t that function available in the program?” − “It’s just a Simple Matter Of Programming”. (The implication being that, given a few person-centuries, all things are possible.) Also <b>SMOUP</b> <i>(smoop)<i>, a Simple Matter Of Micro-Programming (if handwritten, using a Greek mu). See also <i>how hard would it be.</i>
SMOP was among the "games" described in an article as paralleling the ''[[Games People Play (book)|Games People Play]]'' identified by Dr. [[Eric Berne]] in the field of self-help psychology.<ref>{{Citation | last = Shedley | first = Ethan I. | title = [[Big System Games]] | magazine = [[Datamation]] | volume = 17 | issue = 7 | pages = 22–25 | publisher = Technical Publishing Company, 1301 South Grove Ave., Barrington, Illinois 60010 | date = April 1, 1971 }}</ref> The game essentially consists of proposing seemingly simple adjustments to a design, leading to unexpected consequences and delays.
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