Boilerplate can be any text that is reused repeatedly without substantial changes to the original. Boilerplates are commonly used online and in written documents by a variety of entities including corporations, legal firms, and medical facilities. For lack of a better term, the boilerplate is your best bet for getting your press release noticed by the media.Similar to a media kit, an EPK attracts the attention of music industry professionals. To solve this problem, major newspaper companies adopted “boilerplate text” or simply boilerplate term.
With a boilerplate, you’re not only competing for the attention of journalists, but you’re also competing with other companies for more customers. In business, boilerplate is a term to describe the standard wording that is contained in warranties and other documents. Generally, the information that is boilerplate is not subject to change. Our word of the day is a unit of writing that can be reused over and over without change. Although this is the most common use of the word boilerplate, we should note that it can also refer to steel rolled in large flat plates, often used in making steam boilers. In computer programming, boilerplate is the term used to describe sections of code that have to be included in many places with little or no alteration.
In this article, we’re exploring the term boilerplate to uncover its definition, origin, usage, and more. Boilerplate in software development can mean different things to different people but generally means the block of code that is used over and over again. It’s code that can be used by many applications/contexts with little or no change. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search.
In the days before computers, small newspapers around the U.S. relied heavily on feature stories, editorials, and other printed material supplied by large publishing syndicates. The syndicates delivered that copy on metal plates with the type already in place so the local papers wouldn’t have to set it. Printers apparently dubbed those syndicated plates “boiler plates” because of their resemblance to the plating used in making steam boilers. Soon boilerplate came to refer to the printed material on the plates as well as to the plates themselves. Boilerplates are a big part of the corporate, legal, and information technology sectors. These tools help save time and money, allowing standard text and documents to be created and approved for use over and over again.
Companies don’t have to waste resources drafting up new documents or contracts. They can simply update existing documents or templates to suit their current purpose. Similarly, IT professionals can make a few alterations to existing code to create new text and documents online. Web development and design are unquestionably another of my passions. These are some of the features that became repetitive work throughout the years.
How to use boilerplate in a sentence
But, when added to our boilerplate code and turned into part of the starting project, we get a time advantage for our clients, and we can then think of other meaningful features for the business. They are reusable working codes intended to reduce the time to start a new project by implementing standard features and configuration files. You could start from scratch and spend hours and days instituting the necessary features. Or use a boilerplate with a minimum working blog, written in React.js, to extend and modify easily later. In a nutshell, boilerplate codes are repetitive codes required to be included in the application with little to no change by the program/framework, and contribute nothing to the logic of the application. The recommendation is to use a proper Editor that generates boilerplate codes.
- Until the 1950s, thousands of newspapers received and used this kind of boilerplate from the nation’s largest supplier, the Western Newspaper Union.
- This indicates the fees, charges, and other rules that may apply to someone’s service.
- In business, boilerplate is a term to describe the standard wording that is contained in warranties and other documents.
- As may others have pointed out, it
is just a chunk of code that is copied over and over again with little or
no changes made to it in the process. - Even though they are only a few sentences long, boilerplates contain a wealth of useful information.
It is more often used when referring to languages that are considered verbose, i.e. the programmer must write a lot of code to do minimal jobs. Boilerplate text, or simply boilerplate, is any written text (copy) that can be reused in new contexts or applications without significant changes to the original. The term is used about statements, contracts, and computer code, and is often used in the media pejoratively to refer to cliched or unoriginal writing.
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This will assist you in visualizing the final location of the boilerplate in your release.A press release is more effective when all of the following pieces work together in a clear way. It’s dangerous to treat your boilerplate as just another box to tick off and risk losing the attention of your readers.If your boilerplate retained earnings on balance sheet is boring, the reader will lose interest in your businessor worse, will form a negative opinion of your company. Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers.
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It can be a good idea to start every project with a community-based boilerplate such as the Create React App. And if you keep using these boilerplates that implement a consistent pattern throughout the company, you will ensure that all developers are on the same page regarding coding styles, making it easier to join new projects or give maintenance on an older one. These metal plates were attached to a cylinder printing press to produce a print. In 19th-century newspapers, companies needed to share texts between their branches to publish the same or similar articles.
More from Merriam-Webster on boilerplate
The term is also used by software writers to refer to coding that is created and reused over and over again. In this case, the IT specialist only has to rework some of the code to fit into the current need, without making major changes to the original structure. A press release is usually limited to a single URL, so select an appropriate page to fit your marketing strategy.This is a wonderful approach for companies to get consumers to go to their homepage for more information. “Taste the Rainbow” is all you need to know if you’re sifting through hundreds of press releases each day. Still, you also considered extending it to your industry, where you can add those exclusive features that are most common among your clients or the internal projects you’re building. We have come a long way from the boilerplate texts used in the 19th century to our modern-day boilerplate code, yet we can still do much for further improvements.
Some companies also sent out press releases as boilerplate so that they had to be printed as written. In contract law, the term “boilerplate language” or “boilerplate clause” describes the parts of a contract that are considered standard. Columns
and other pieces that were syndicated were sent out to subscribing
newspapers in the form of a mat (i.e. a matrix).
What Are Synonyms and Antonyms of Boilerplate?
Boilerplate code means a piece of code which can be used over and over again. On the other hand, anyone can say that it’s a piece of reusable code. A coworker had never heard of this, and I couldn’t provide a real definition. They prevent inadvertent deviation from one contract or document to the next.
