[tlug] [Off topic?] Lorem Ipsum for Code?

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull.stephen.fw@example.com>]

Claus Aranha writes:

 > What would you use if you had to show some random code without
 > caring too much about the contents of the code itself?

The point of lorem ipsum is to allow the "reader" to focus on the
presentation (visual structure) of prose, which itself is
unstructured.  It accomplishes this goal by using words that appear to
be a foreign language and aren't in any dictionary.[1]

Code *is* structure, on a very granular scale compared to the visual
displays that lorem ipsum is used for.  So I guess I would just use
anything, and maybe lorem-ize the identifiers to prevent people from
imagining semantics.

The other possibility would be to dither the heck out of an image of
actual code, so that the tokens are unreadable but the gross structure
of the presentation of the code (indentation, blank lines) is evident.

Which to use depends on whether the granular structure (the
programming language's syntax) of the code should be readable.


Footnotes: 
[1]  I wouldn't be surprised to hear that there's a lorem ipsum cult
that has made a lorem ipsum dictionary and grammar and speaks lorem
ipsum at nomikai.  That doesn't count, OK?