Talk:Idiot code

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Brianjd (talk | contribs) at 08:15, 27 January 2008 (Why remove the long quote? Why remove the Asher Black reference?). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Latest comment: 17 years ago by Brianjd in topic Heinlein reference

Heinlein reference

I mentioned that the origin seemed to be the Heinlein book because it is the earliest reference I can find. Is that insufficient or just incorrectly worded? Perhaps something like, "The earliest reference appears to be..." or "The origin may be..."? I'm new so all advice is welcomed. - Operknockity (talk) 13:28, 25 January 2008 (UTC)Reply

The "may be" might be OK, but in general making such inferences from what you can find is WP:OR. Better to just say "an early use of the term is" or something that's not forming a conclusion based on limited evidence; best, if you can find someone who has already published a comment on the origin of the term, is to report and cite that. Dicklyon (talk) 16:56, 25 January 2008 (UTC)Reply

I took it to "an early use appears to be" so as not to formally even conclude that it is definitively an early use. Only the earliest we've found. Better? - Operknockity (talk) 18:43, 25 January 2008 (UTC)Reply

Concerning revision 186972069:
  1. Why remove the long quote? The short quote seems meaningless by itself.
  2. What does "use the one with an accessible source" mean? The source that was removed can be accessed just fine by me, whereas the source that was left there doesn't actually give the quote, just the page number. Brian Jason Drake 08:15, 27 January 2008 (UTC)Reply