Re: Origin of Boiler Plate

I feel that you have come VERY close to what I believe to be the origin of the term, as well as the common meaning of its usage, but not exactly.

The term, when properly used, is an adective not a noun. It's earliest use stems from the field of engineering and refers to the various specifications stenciled on a boiler by the manufacturer. The operating parameters for a given boiler may deviate from this due to modifications, age , etc. Still there is a need to have a fixed point of reference that does not change for all time and this is the "Boilerplate Specifications".

You can apply the term to many areas. The baseline source code for an application, from which all future versions are derived, could be referred to as being the "Boilerplate Source".

In word processing, a form from which other forms are derived might be referred to as being a "Boilerplate Form", etc. Received on Fri Oct 13 1995 - 00:00:00 CET