English Language & Usage Asked on August 11, 2021
I recently came across the phrase “final solution” being used in communication between software developers. It was used like this:
I was working on fixing the issue with the data. I tried several potential solutions, but they did not work or had other drawbacks. The final solution I found was X. I implemented it and the data loads correctly now."
While the phrase was used purely in a technical context, I still found it shocking, and I was not expecting to see the two words put together like this. But maybe it’s just me…
I came across What is another way of saying "final solution?", where the asker was searching for an alternative phrase to “final solution”, even in a technical context, because of its negative connotations.
I would like to know if this phrase is commonplace in technical communication.
Are there any instances of this particular phrase in technical publications or communication from international tech corporations?
On this site, most of the users are older and more educated than much of the general population, so without a doubt this usage will find resistance because of its association with the Holocaust.
By way of contrast, it appears that most Millennials and Gen Z are either unaware or only tangentially aware of the Holocaust and all that entails. Most recent 10th grade Western students have read " Diary of Anne Frank", but consider it to be a "novel assigned as required reading" which they did in SparkNotes to cover a few questions in Literature . That's scary.
So does it occur in the techno-babble of the software dev world...
I think most of the recent usages you will find (and there are many) will come from people who belong to younger generations, or a country which has only scanty History courses about the WWII on the European stage.*
As it has been said..."Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it."
*Sidebar:
Many of the world's finest coders come from Asia, and some usages may seem tone-deaf...
...but most Westerners tend to forget that the war had a huge impact on the people of Asia (especially China, Vietnam, Burma, and Korea) and the Middle East, and that the indigenous peoples faced abuse at the hand's of the Imperialist-style forms of local government which was not dissimilar to the NAZI treatment of the so-called "mongrel races". Family history tends to focus on local traumas, so it is no wonder that far-off events are not well-remembered.
As a personal example, like many Americans of my generation I grew up listening to the stories of family members such as my great-uncle "Lefty" told about about Patton's Third Army, and was convinced that the Western Allies won WWII and freed the concentration camp inmates, when actually it was the Soviets that entered Berlin first and took control of the Chancellery grounds... it was a Soviet scout of the 322nd Rifle Division that first liberated an extermination camp in Poland called Auschwitz ...
Correct answer by Cascabel on August 11, 2021
I'm sure you can find an occasional example of someone putting the two words together in a neutral fashion, but I would suggest that the phrase "final solution" is so closely tied to the Nazi plan to exterminate Jews in World War II that English speakers tend to avoid the combination, even when it would otherwise naturally occur.
Evidence:
Both Merriam Webster and Dictionary.com have only a single definition for "final solution":
the Nazi program for extermination of all Jews in Europe
the Nazi program of annihilating the Jews of Europe during the Third Reich.
Answered by BradC on August 11, 2021
After further research, and a useful comment by Jim which as now been moved to chat, I believe I can answer my own question.
The phrase does seem to be in use in the context of software development or other technical fields.
I am not saying that it is a good idea to use this phrase in a multicultural environment, neither am I commenting on the philosophical issue of whether there does or does not exist a “final solution” to a technical problem. I am just providing evidence that it does seem to be in use.
A paper titled Artificial Intelligence for Software Engineering: An Initial Review on Software Bug Detection and Prevention, which seems to have been published in a scientific journal, contains the following text:
A final solution should include a combination of both knowledge types to provide efficient and reliable software.
However, it is worth noting that the authors seem to have an East Asian background, and I am not sure if the specific scientific journal is reputable internationally.
I was able to find the phrase in another paper titled How Bad Can a Bug Get? An Empirical Analysis of Software Failures in the OpenStack Cloud Computing Platform:
the problem report also includes a final solution shipped in OpenStack
This is a preprint so I am not sure if the paper got published with this wording.
Another example is from Developer recommendation on bug commenting: a ranking approach for the developer crowd :
These selected developers are ranked according to their combined scores as the final solution.
This paper has been published in some scientific journal, however, I was unable to determine the name or the reputability of the journal.
I found a paper where the term was used in the title: Mapping Problem and Requirements to Final Solution: A Document Analysis of Capstone Design Projects. This paper, at the time of writing, was cited 7 times and seems to have been presented at a reputable conference. This is the strongest evidence by far.
A book published by Salem Press and titled USA in Space also includes the phrase:
The final solution was to modify NASA’s Gemini craft…
Finally, another book titled Professional JavaScript For Web Developers, published by Wiley, also uses the phrase:
The final solution was the enclose the script code in an HTML comment.
I also found a question on StackOverflow Meta where some people have posted useful information: Can the expression “final solution” be used on the site?
Answered by hb20007 on August 11, 2021
It’s dangerous to use.
In software development it may come up without bad intent. “To solve problem X, we first tried solution A which failed because… solution B worked better but was too slow. Our final solution was to combine A and B.”
Even though it is intended to have no darker meaning, I would definitely change the wording because it will cause offense - to normal people and to people who want to be offended. For example “The solution that we finally chose was to combine A and B”.
PS. The original German term is one word. And that one word can never, ever be used except for a plan to kill millions of people.
Answered by gnasher729 on August 11, 2021
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