What is a “tight loop”?

Question

I\'ve heard that phrase a lot. What does it mean?

An example would help.

Answer 1

From Wiktionary:

1. (computing) In assembly languages, a loop which contains few instructions and iterates many times.
2. (computing) Such a loop which heavily uses I/O or processing resources, failing to adequately share them with other programs running in the operating system.

For case 1 it is probably like

for (unsigned int i = 0; i < 0xffffffff; ++ i) {}

Answer 2

According to Webster's dictionary, "A loop of code that executes without releasing any resources to other programs or the operating system."

http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/ti/tight+loop.html