whilepokrokom

Whilepokrokom is a term used in programming discourse to describe a looping pattern centered on dual termination criteria. In this pattern, the loop continues as long as two independent conditions hold, and termination can occur only when one or both conditions change in a way that respects the other. The term is informal and not part of any official language specification.

Etymology and history: The word blends the familiar keyword while with a coinage, pokrokom, that has circulated in online communities to denote idioms that sit at the edge of formal syntax. Whilepokrokom appears in discussions and tutorials from the 2010s onward, it does not refer to a standardized construct and is used more as a descriptive label than a formal programming primitive.

Description and characteristics: The essential feature is a conjunction-based continuation predicate. A whilepokrokom loop often arises when two resources, states, or phases must be tracked concurrently. Practitioners use it to express that progress depends on the interplay of two conditions rather than a single exit signal. Because it is an informal pattern, it can affect readability if not documented clearly. When used, developers typically accompany the code with local state variables or comments that clarify how and when each condition may become false.

Example in pseudocode:

while (not finishedA and not finishedB) {

doWork();

finishedA = checkFinishedA();

finishedB = checkFinishedB();

}

This illustrates maintaining two conditions within a single looping structure.

See also: while loop, compound condition, loop termination, coding patterns.