Boilerplate (text)

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For other uses, see Boilerplate.

Boilerplate is any text that is or can be reused in new contexts or applications without being changed much from the original. Many computer programmers often use the term boilerplate code. A legal boilerplate is a standard provision in a contract.

The term dates back to the early 1900s, referring to the thick, tough steel sheets used to build steam boilers. From the 1890s onwards, printing plates of text for widespread reproduction such as advertisements or syndicated columns were cast or stamped in steel (instead of the much softer and less durable lead alloys used otherwise) ready for the printing press and distributed to newspapers around the United States. They came to be known as 'boilerplates'. Until the 1950s, thousands of newspapers received and used this kind of boilerplate from the nation's largest supplier, the Western Newspaper Union.

Some companies also sent out press releases as boilerplate so that they had to be printed as written. The modern equivalent is the press release boilerplate, or "boiler," a paragraph or two that describes the company and its products.

The word has also come into use for pre-created form letters on the Internet for things such as issues to be broached by a politician based on an issue ad, requesting a cable network be added to a system by a cable or satellite operator, or a pre-written complaint about something such as a program, book, or video game opposed by a group which created the letter, along with online petitions. Usually the greeting and the body of the letter have been pre-written, requiring the person requesting the action to only type or sign their name at the end.

[edit] Boilerplate code

In computer programming, boilerplate is the term used to describe sections of code that have to be included in many places with little or no alteration. It is more often used when referring to languages which are considered verbose, i.e. the programmer must write a lot of code to do minimal jobs. The need for boilerplate can be reduced through high-level mechanisms such as Metaprogramming (which has the computer automatically write the needed boilerplate text) and Convention over Configuration (which provides good defaults values, reducing the need to specify program details in every project).

The verbosity of languages is often tested by comparing their implementations of the Hello World program. Some languages require a lot of set-up code before the simple procedure of outputting text is performed. Compare, for example, Hello World written in C and Python.

#include <stdio.h>
 
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
     printf("Hello, World!\n");
 
     return 0;
}

Python:

if __name__ == "__main__":
     print "Hello, World!"

The first two lines in the C example and the first in the Python example, which appear in typical programs, are boilerplate.

A boilerplate can be compared to a certain kind of template, which can be thought of as a fill-in-the-blanks boilerplate. Some typical boilerplates include: mission statements, safety warnings, commonly used installation procedures, copyright statements, and responsibility disclaimers.

[edit] Boilerplate language

The term boilerplate is also adopted by lawyers to describe those parts of a contract that are considered "standard language", although it is good practice to always read the boilerplates in any contract.

[edit] See also

Library (computer science).

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