4 ms·
Probably a silly question, but what's the "obvious reason" for using XXXYYY in this paragraph? "Some DEC code seems to have gone really overboard with this, wi
by GunlogAlm 9y ago
Probably a silly question, but what's the "obvious reason" for using XXXYYY in this paragraph?
"Some DEC code seems to have gone really overboard with this, with single source files having half a dozen different XXXYYY identifiers. (Sorry, had to use YYY as the placeholder there for obvious reasons)."
- eriknstr 9y agoPerhaps XXX001, XXX002, XXX003 and so on?
- tene 9y agoBy my reading, that parenthetical comment is implying that the author initially considered "XXX" as a placeholder for the letters coming after a literal "XXX" in the DEC source code, but couldn't use "XXX" as a placeholder because it's also being used literally as the prefix, so "XXXXXX" would not demonstrate what the author was trying to communicate (that the DEC code in question had many instances of the letters "XXX" followed by three other letters).
- uiri 9y agoThe standard placeholder would be to use "XXX" instead of "YYY" but "XXXXXX" is semantically ambiguous in this context.