But... I think repeated letters are just easier to type than any other string, and since X looks like the classic "marks the spot" logo, it's what people jump to.
I always thought it was from Java, but that's probably a personal bias; I am sure it was used long before Java was a thing. I did find this though (archived from 1999):
> Some hackers liken ‘XXX’ to the notional heavy-porn movie rating.
This seems plausible given the older culture ("this is metaphorically dirty, and therefore like porn", insert puerile snickering) and I can recall old jokes about "searching for" these markings. But I think it's also just about it visually standing out - the X character filling the terminal display cell with sharp lines.
slongfield|7 months ago
And it shows up in some old BSD code: https://www.snellman.net/blog/archive/2017-04-17-xxx-fixme/
But... I think repeated letters are just easier to type than any other string, and since X looks like the classic "marks the spot" logo, it's what people jump to.
1659447091|7 months ago
https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase/codeconventi...
zahlman|7 months ago
> Some hackers liken ‘XXX’ to the notional heavy-porn movie rating.
This seems plausible given the older culture ("this is metaphorically dirty, and therefore like porn", insert puerile snickering) and I can recall old jokes about "searching for" these markings. But I think it's also just about it visually standing out - the X character filling the terminal display cell with sharp lines.
o11c|7 months ago
It turns out it refers to "moonshine that has been distilled 3 times, reaching very high alcohol content".
pisipisipisi|7 months ago