Boilerplate (text)

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For Wikipedia's boilerplate text feature, see [Boilerplate text]

Boilerplate refers to any text that is or can be reused in new contexts or applications without being changed much from the original. Many programmers often use the term "boilerplate code," and a legal boilerplate is a standard provision in a contract.

The term dates back to the early 1900s, referring to the steel used in steam boilers. Hence a boilerplate is text that is "strong as steel." In the 1890s, boilerplates were actually cast or stamped in metal ready for the printing press and distributed to newspapers around the United States. Until the 1950s, thousands of newspapers received and used this kind of boilerplate from the nation's largest supplier, the Western Newspaper Union.

Some companies also sent out press releases as boilerplate so that they had to be printed as written. The modern equivalent is the press release boilerplate, or "boiler," a paragraph or two that describes the company and its products.

Boilerplate Code

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. It is more often used when referring to languages which are considered verbose, ie the programmer must write a lot of code to do minimal jobs.

The verbosity of languages is often tested by comparing their implementations of the Hello World program. Some languages require a lot of set-up code before the simple procedure of outputting text is performed.