Re: Gobble empty strings passed as arguments to python scripts. (issue 6819066)

[dak]

On 2012/11/05 10:58:37, janek wrote:
> I think it would be helpful to not-so-advanced English speakers if a
word more
> ordinary than "gobble" was used.

I am not sure of that.  "gobble" is actually pretty established in
programmer jargon:

From The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003) [jargon]:

  gobble
   vt.

      1. To consume, usu.: used with ?up?. ?The output spy gobbles
characters out
      of a {tty} output buffer.?

      2. To obtain, usu.: used with ?down?. ?I guess I'll gobble down a
copy of
      the documentation tomorrow.? See also {snarf}.


From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 July 2010) [foldoc]:

  gobble

     <jargon>

     1. To consume, usually used with "up".  "The output spy
     gobbles characters out of a {tty} output buffer."

     2. To obtain, usually used with "down".  "I guess I'll gobble
     down a copy of the documentation tomorrow."

     See also {snarf}.

     [{Jargon File}]

     (2010-01-19)

It has a rather well-established meaning.  The referenced "snarf" is
even less common in normal English usage, but is quite common for
programmers (the difference of snarfing to gobbling is that snarfed
components are typically used elsewhere while gobbled material is
usually discarded).

So since the main audience of commit messages is supposed to be
programmers, I don't really think that the message will be improved by
reverting to non-standard terms better rooted in the Queen's English.

https://codereview.appspot.com/6819066/