Comments on: Today’s term: Syntactic Vinegar http://pinds.com/2006/08/02/today-s-term-syntactic-vinegar/ personal growth, entrepreneurship, food, technology. Thu, 02 Sep 2010 03:04:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: josh susser http://pinds.com/2006/08/02/today-s-term-syntactic-vinegar/comment-page-1/#comment-1139 josh susser Wed, 02 Aug 2006 08:34:23 +0000 http://pinds.com/2007/07/27/today-s-term-syntactic-vinegar#comment-1139 I didn't make the term up. As best as I can recall, I first heard it from Richard Rodseth, someone I worked with on OpenDoc at Apple. We were using some ugly SOM/CORBA bindings with C++, and he came up with that term to describe them as the opposite of syntactic sugar. This article by fellow OpenDoc'er Jens Alfke seems to confirm that recollection: http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.11/11.01/LearningtoLoveSOM/index.html Whether that's the first actual use of the term may never be known. While the original connotation was different, I think it maps well to the new usage of unweildy syntax used to discourage use of fringe features. I didn’t make the term up. As best as I can recall, I first heard it from Richard Rodseth, someone I worked with on OpenDoc at Apple. We were using some ugly SOM/CORBA bindings with C++, and he came up with that term to describe them as the opposite of syntactic sugar. This article by fellow OpenDoc’er Jens Alfke seems to confirm that recollection:

http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.11/11.01/LearningtoLoveSOM/index.html

Whether that’s the first actual use of the term may never be known. While the original connotation was different, I think it maps well to the new usage of unweildy syntax used to discourage use of fringe features.

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