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From Trying Vue.js for the First Time, the code wasn't syntax highlighted at first, the YouTuber says:

Ah oh, my Vue code is emo.

What does this emo mean in this context?

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"Emo" is a term that comes originally from music. The wiktionary entry for emo, noun (from "emocore," "emotion"+"hardcore") lists a progression of meanings, beginning with "a particular style of hardcore rock" and ending at "a young person who is considered to be over-emotional or stereotypically emo." Then it defines emo, adjective (from "emotional"), including:

  1. (informal, often derogatory) Depressed.

Any definitions from Urban Dictionary should of course be taking with a grain of salt. But the top definition there is telling:

  1. An emotional person. They are not depressed all the time and some are acually very happy at times. They do smile, they don't sit in a corner crying all day. Some are actually quite popular and laugh and joke around lots.
    NB: Emo does not mean the person cuts themselves, they might but that is not why they're emo.

You can see that the definition is making pains to say that not all emo people are actually depressed and "blah," which tells you that in common parlance people do use the term that way.


So when the YouTuber says his text is "emo" he means it is boring or depressing by virtue of being monochrome. He changes the settings to highlight different words depending on the code syntax, which makes it "non-emo."

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  • So there's nothing wrong with his actual code? His editor settings are boring (because there is no syntax highlighting)?
    – Mick
    Oct 10, 2021 at 2:12
  • Yes, the context is only about formatting/highlighting. He installs an extension that highlights the code in various colors and then says "Okay, we're good now" without making any changes to the code itself.
    – randomhead
    Oct 10, 2021 at 2:21
  • The poor thing. He should try punched card input with upper-case-only, line-printer output. Any highlighting was done with marker pens.
    – Mick
    Oct 10, 2021 at 2:25
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    @Mick The old days, haha...
    – Wenfang Du
    Oct 10, 2021 at 2:36
  • I'm curious why use "by virtue of" here? Why is being monochrome a virtue?
    – Wenfang Du
    Oct 10, 2021 at 2:51

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