Tradition Glossary

Browse 4 tradition terms defined in plain English, from the cultural dictionary of computing.

4 Tradition Terms

Easter Egg: A hidden message, feature, or joke intentionally embedded in software by its developers, discoverable only by those who know where to look. The tradition dates...
Foo / Bar / Baz: The canonical metasyntactic variables used in programming examples, documentation, and teaching. When a programmer needs a throwaway name for a variable,...
Old School: Describing older tools, habits, styles, or technical approaches that predate current trends but may still be respected for their reliability or craftsmanship....
Rubber Duck (noun): The physical object — a yellow rubber duck — kept on a programmer's desk as a debugging companion. Available in themed variants: pirate duck, wizard duck,...