From Newsgroup: alt.usage.english
ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) wrote or quoted:
|ones to the free storage list. Programmers called this
|process "garbage collection." Reviewers initially rejected
|the term in publications due to its perceived vulgarity,
The term "garbage" is also used in the context of the
category of pointed sets.
|The base point is sometimes called the "origin" or "preferred
|point", but in some applications in computer science, it is
|referred to as the "garbage point."
|
|Then, the fact that the maps in this category preserve the
|base point is expressed by the colorful phrase: "Garbage in,
|garbage out."
|
|Sometimes, even if the input isn't garbage, the result is
|garbage. The base point in the codomain serves as the
|recipient of all the garbage results of a particular map.
|
"Conceptual Mathematics" (2009) - F. William Lawvere
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