4 ms·

This is a misuse of the prefix "meta". "Meta" does not mean "reflection over X". It means "X about X". Saying "metaprogrammer" means "programming about programm

by hlandau 10y ago

This is a misuse of the prefix "meta". "Meta" does not mean "reflection over X". It means "X about X". Saying "metaprogrammer" means "programming about programming". The conventional use of the term "metaprogramming" is correct; unless you can claim that discussing desk chairs is somehow programming about programming, the use of the term metaprogramming to describe this is simply erroneous. (I'd also like to add that deliberately trying to fracture a word into having two completely different meanings just because you think that word sounds cool is to deliberately reduce the accuracy and unambiguity of human communication and perpetrate a damage to the English language, which is pretty obnoxious.)

gjm11 10y ago
Way back when, in ancient Greek, "meta" just meant "alongside" or "next to" or "after". Then Aristotle wrote a book called "Physics" (though its subject was broader than what we now call physics) and another book whose title has been lost, about more abstruse things. It was typically shelved next to the "Physics" and listed after it in catalogues, and it was alleged that Aristotle thought its contents should be taught later than those of the "Physics", and it therefore came to be known as "Metaphysics": the thing that comes after the "Physics". Because the stuff in the "Metaphysics" was felt to be deeper and more advanced than the stuff in the "Physics", "meta-" came to mean something like "beyond" -- with indeed a connotation of "X about X", but by no means always. "Metamathematics" is mathematics about mathematics, but "metapolitics" is theorizing about politics, not doing politics about politics. (The above may sound ridiculous, but it really is where this usage of "meta-" comes from.) I agree that it's weird to take "metaprogramming" to mean "discussion of things like office furniture, big monitors and text editors", and that "metaprogramming" already has a meaning and that that isn't it. But the problem isn't that "meta" can only mean "X about X"; that simply isn't true.

by hlandau 10y ago

gjm11 10y ago

Way back when, in ancient Greek, "meta" just meant "alongside" or "next to" or "after". Then Aristotle wrote a book called "Physics" (though its subject was broader than what we now call physics) and another book whose title has been lost, about more abstruse things. It was typically shelved next to the "Physics" and listed after it in catalogues, and it was alleged that Aristotle thought its contents should be taught later than those of the "Physics", and it therefore came to be known as "Metaphysics": the thing that comes after the "Physics". Because the stuff in the "Metaphysics" was felt to be deeper and more advanced than the stuff in the "Physics", "meta-" came to mean something like "beyond" -- with indeed a connotation of "X about X", but by no means always. "Metamathematics" is mathematics about mathematics, but "metapolitics" is theorizing about politics, not doing politics about politics. (The above may sound ridiculous, but it really is where this usage of "meta-" comes from.) I agree that it's weird to take "metaprogramming" to mean "discussion of things like office furniture, big monitors and text editors", and that "metaprogramming" already has a meaning and that that isn't it. But the problem isn't that "meta" can only mean "X about X"; that simply isn't true.