5 ms·

What's the origin of XXX? I've seen FIXME/NOTE/TODO all over the place, but never encountered XXX before.

• pisipisipisi 1y ago
  Amsterdam.
• slongfield 1y ago
  It has some ancient history as a morse code distress signal: https://regulatorylibrary.caa.co.uk/923-2012/Content/Regs/03800_1._DISTRESS_AND_URGENCY_SIGNALS.htm https://regulatorylibrary.caa.co.uk/923-2012/Content/Regs/03... And it shows up in some old BSD code: https://www.snellman.net/blog/archive/2017-04-17-xxx-fixme/ https://www.snellman.net/blog/archive/2017-04-17-xxx-fixme/ But... I think repeated letters are just easier to type than any other string, and since X looks like the classic "marks the spot" logo, it's what people jump to.
• 1659447091 1y ago
  I always thought it was from Java, but that's probably a personal bias; I am sure it was used long before Java was a thing. I did find this though (archived from 1999): https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase/codeconventions-programmingpractices.html#395 https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase/codeconventi...
• zahlman 1y ago
  Unclear, but we do have https://www.catb.org/jargon/html/X/XXX.html https://www.catb.org/jargon/html/X/XXX.html > Some hackers liken ‘XXX’ to the notional heavy-porn movie rating. This seems plausible given the older culture ("this is metaphorically dirty, and therefore like porn", insert puerile snickering) and I can recall old jokes about "searching for" these markings. But I think it's also just about it visually standing out - the X character filling the terminal display cell with sharp lines.
  • o11c 1y ago
    Hm, this made me wonder about the use of XXX as a label for alcohol bottles in cartoons. It turns out it refers to "moonshine that has been distilled 3 times, reaching very high alcohol content".