Ancestors

Toot

Written by Miro Hrončok :fedora: :python: on 2024-11-22 at 15:48

It occurred to me -- after many years -- that the word "default" literally means "revert to a working state".

In Czech, we often translate that as "výchozí" which literally means "in the exiting state" (as in, when it exits the manufacturing process).

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from hroncok@floss.social

Descendants

Written by Hugo van Kemenade on 2024-11-22 at 21:09

@hroncok I'd never though it that and it sounds plausible (de-fault, to undo a fault), but I looked it up and it's original meaning is failing to do something, like defaulting on a loan is failing to meet financial commitments.

The computing sense is an extension. The OED says:

"An option or setting that is adopted automatically by a computer program whenever an alternative is not specified by the user or programmer."

It's like you fail to set something, so it defaults to a fallback.

=> More informations about this toot | More toots from hugovk@mastodon.social