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by naikrovek 1027 days ago
I'm cynical because I've seen SO MANY terms quickly change, only to be told by people who are younger than my career that my use of a term is incorrect.

I'm cynical because I've been forced to be.

"copypasta" used to mean that a programs source code was copied from many places and hastily wired up so it all works without any cleanup or untangling of unnecessary bits of code, like casts from uint16 to uint32 so that one copied method could be used, then a cast back to uint16 so another copied method could be used, then a cast to uint32 again so that the ultimate result could be used.

could those types have been changed in the methods so that the casts weren't needed? you bet. but it is a hastily assembled Frankenstein's monster that lives and breathes but that gives you nightmares when you look at the source code again in 1 weeks time.

today, "copypasta" is often used to mean "I copied a single method from another project, used it, and now my program is legit copypasta, lol."

I'm just tired of people using words and technical terms without understanding them. I know that it's a reality of spoken languages, but I don't have to like it.
3 comments
soulofmischief 1027 days ago
You do realize that there is a plethora of words in the English language which have multiple distinct meanings?

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/english-w...

No one forced you to be bitter about evolving language. We live in a hyperconnected era where language is evolving faster than ever, so you'll need to calibrate if you don't want to spend every minute seething.

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esperent 1027 days ago
> told by people who are younger than my career that my use of a term is incorrect

Being old doesn't make you wise, or right.

It's nonsense to demand that meaning of words will never change, because change over time is just how language works.

That's how we got from Chaucer, to Shakespeare, to modern English. The changes do happen fast enough to be noticeable in a single lifetime.

As you grow older, it's important to track these changes. You don't have to agree with them or like them. But sometimes you might have to accept the new meanings anyway.

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naikrovek 1026 days ago
> Being old doesn't make you wise, or right.

are you serious?

being old doesn't inherently make you know things, no, and that is absolutely not what I was saying.

I was around when the term was coined and I used it in conversation with others. After that the people who argue with me today tell me that my use of the term then was wrong were born.

Wikipedia is wrong about the origins of this term; I was using it in 1998 in the #slashdot IRC channel, and that's where I was introduced to the term.

why in the hell do you think I was saying that age alone grants knowledge? that is a leap greater than I've seen in a long time.

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soulofmischief 1026 days ago
No one is saying your definition is incorrect. You are saying another group's definition is incorrect.
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intvocoder 1027 days ago
It’s maybe a stretch to call 4chan speak like “copypasta” a technical term.
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naikrovek 1023 days ago
technical term or not, it has meaning.

an easier to understand example, then: "literally" - "in effect; in substance; very nearly; virtually: 'I literally died when she walked out on stage in that costume.'"

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/literally

"literally" now literally means "figuratively" because of the phenomenon I'm talking about.

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