Ghost of a flea: Metasyntactic

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March 09, 2005

Metasyntactic

This list of metasyntactic variables should come in handy. I like the French equivalents included too.

Strictly, a variable used in metasyntax, but often used for any name used in examples and understood to stand for whatever thing is under discussion, or any random member of a class of things under discussion. The word foo is the canonical example. To avoid confusion, hackers never (well, hardly ever) use "foo" or other words like it as permanent names for anything.

See also, Commonwealth hackish for hacker jargon as spoken outside the US, especially in the British Commonwealth.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at March 9, 2005 08:15 AM

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