Talk:Metasyntactic variable

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Cleanup Taskforce article This article has been improved by the Cleanup Taskforce to conform with a higher standard of quality. Please see its Cleanup Taskforce page for more details on this process, and possible ideas on how you can further improve this article!

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[edit] Placeholder names are NOT metasyntactic variables

RFC3092- "The etymology of foo" describes the use of a metasyntactic variable.

Metasyntactic variables are used with variables, placeholder names are commonly only used to describe nouns.

Placeholder names are used in human communications in place of the correct word. A metasyntactic variable is "a variable of a variable", hence the meta. Somewhere along the line these 2 pages have crossed paths and intermingled and need to be re-separated. Merging these 2 pages would only add to what is already a mess. kf4yfd 13:47, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

RFC 3092 - Etymology of "Foo" --Jtir 23:26, 22 June 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Cleanup

I've removed a large chunk of the examples, as the article was mostly an example farm. Please use some judgment in building the article back up so that it doesn't turn into an unwieldy mess again. - Stephanie Daugherty (Triona) - Talk - Comment - 19:47, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Discussion Archives

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Metasyntactic_variable/Archive_1 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kf4yfd (talk • contribs) 16:37, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll leave it to you to complete the archiving by removing whatever comments you have copied to Talk:Metasyntactic_variable/Archive_1. --Jtir (talk) 22:20, 14 January 2008 (UTC)
Sorry, got sidetracked with dinner plans ... work in progress kf4yfd (talk) 22:38, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] source example

Is there an example from the Ruby (or Python) documentation that could be used? The example from Variable "foo" and Other Programming Oddities doesn't provide the context. That's why I quoted Kernighan in the article. --Jtir (talk) 14:04, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Why delete the =Specific Examples= section? All references were properly cited and relevant. Also why is the source of the ruby code under question if it is properly formatted and an example of a metasyntactic variable? Also I cannot find an example of "foo" in the proper ruby documentation. Ruby was chosen (and that specific example) because it is easily readable to a beginning programmer and possibly to non-programmers. kf4yfd (talk) 14:16, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
Let's see if we can find an easy example in a realistic context. Python has much more documentation than Ruby. I haven't looked for one, but would a Python example be OK?
One specific problem with the Variable "foo" and Other Programming Oddities example is that it is syntactically incorrect.
An editor had to fix it.
--Jtir (talk) 14:29, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

[Copied from User talk:Jtir to maintain context.] --Jtir (talk) 14:40, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for helping on the cleanup of this article, it was a disaster. I do not believe that the Kernighan example of foo is sufficient to give an example of the use of a metasyntactic variable and a more complete code snippet would be better. That example in fact is about the use of local and global variables. Mabey an example in BASIC would be one better still. Let me know your thoughs. Also why delete relevant and properly cited information, especially on a very short page relating to an advanced concept. A lot of "googling" to find references went into keeping as much relevant info from the "Pre Cleanup Taskforce" page. kf4yfd (talk) 14:33, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for cleaning up the article and adding references. A reference is how I discovered the Kernighan example. BASIC would be fine. Does the example have to use foo?
I didn't remove Variable "foo" and Other Programming Oddities, but put it into the exlinks, since it is certainly relevant.
--Jtir (talk) 15:14, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
I have added source snippets with context. The Kernighan example needs more annotation. --Jtir (talk) 16:55, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] What is f1 in the Kernighan example?

Is f1 in the Kernighan example a metasyntactic variable or a placeholder name? --Jtir (talk) 14:32, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

And what is the status of "SPAM = 1" in the Python example? --Jtir (talk) 16:15, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Re-direct

Why does the word 'wibble' redirect here? I can't find any mention of it in the article. 86.0.108.178 (talk) 23:12, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] metalinguistic

Is this the exact same thing as a metalinguistic variable ? Pontiff Greg Bard (talk) 03:59, 22 April 2008 (UTC)