Tag: Code readability

The term “syntactic sugar” was coined in 1964 by computer scientist Peter J. Landin to describe language features that make code sweeter for humans to read and write. A sugar function, or any syntactic sugar, is a convenience for developers that does not fundamentally change the language's core functionality.

The Java programming language was famously named after Java coffee, but the 'sugar' content for these two things could not be more different. While a cup of black Java coffee contains virtually no sugar, the 'sugar' found in the programming language is purely metaphorical, referring to syntax that makes code easier to write. This distinction is crucial for understanding what 'sugar' means in both contexts.