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Boilerplate text, or simply boilerplate, is any written text (
copy Copy may refer to: *Copying or the product of copying (including the plural "copies"); the duplication of information or an artifact **Cut, copy and paste, a method of reproducing text or other data in computing **File copying **Photocopying, a pr ...
) 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 A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These pr ...
, and is used in the media to refer to hackneyed or unoriginal writing.


Etymology

"Boiler plate" originally referred to the rolled steel used to make
boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centr ...
s to heat water. Metal printing plates (
type metal In printing, type metal refers to the metal alloys used in traditional typefounding and hot metal typesetting. Historically, type metal was an alloy of lead, tin and antimony in different proportions depending on the application, be it individ ...
) used in hot metal typesetting of prepared text such as advertisements or syndicated columns were distributed to small, local
newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...
s, and became known as 'boilerplates' by analogy. One large supplier to newspapers of this kind of boilerplate was the Western Newspaper Union, which supplied "ready-to-print stories
hich Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...
contained national or international news" to papers with smaller geographic footprints, which could include advertisements pre-printed next to the conventional content.


Boilerplate language

In contract law, the term "boilerplate language" or "
boilerplate clause A boilerplate clause is a legal English term that is used in conjunction with contract law. When forming contracts, parties to the contract often use templates or forms with boilerplate clauses ( boilerplate language, used as standard language). Su ...
" describes the parts of a contract that are considered standard. A standard form contract or boilerplate contract is a contract between two parties, where the terms and conditions of the contract are set by one of the parties, and the other party has little or no ability to negotiate more favorable terms and is thus placed in a "take it or leave it" position. Boilerplate language may also exist in pre-created
form letter A form letter is a letter written from a template, rather than being specially composed for a specific recipient. The most general kind of form letter consists of one or more regions of boilerplate text interspersed with one or more substitution p ...
s. The person sending the form letter then usually only needs to add his or her name at the end of the pre-written greeting and body.


Boilerplate code

In computer programming, boilerplate is the sections of code that have to be included in many places with little or no alteration. Such boilerplate code is particularly salient when the programmer must include a lot of code for minimal functionality. A related phenomenon, bookkeeping code, is code that is not part of the business logic, but is interleaved with it to keep data structures updated or able to handle secondary aspects of the program.


Boilerplate statement

A boilerplate statement or response generally refers to a message used with minimal effort for multiple different situations. Examples include official statements from government officials like ''"Our thoughts and prayers go to those affected"'' or messages left by companies' staff like ''"Thank you for contacting us. Most issues are solved by going to our website."''


See also

* Clipboard manager *
Library (computer science) In computer science, a library is a collection of non-volatile resources used by computer programs, often for software development. These may include configuration data, documentation, help data, message templates, pre-written code and sub ...
*
Snippet management Snippet is a programming term for a small region of re-usable source code, machine code, or text. Ordinarily, these are formally defined operative units to incorporate into larger programming modules. Snippet management is a feature of some text ...
*
Template processor A template processor (also known as a template engine or template parser) is software designed to combine templates with a data model to produce result documents. The language that the templates are written in is known as a template language ...
s are used to generate boilerplate text automatically * Transpromotional


References


External links


Example of a boiler plate
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