Content-free

2 definitions found

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  content-free adj. [by analogy with techspeak `context-free'] Used of a
     message that adds nothing to the recipient's knowledge. Though this
     adjective is sometimes applied to {flamage}, it more usually connotes
     derision for communication styles that exalt form over substance or are
     centered on concerns irrelevant to the subject ostensibly at hand.
     Perhaps most used with reference to speeches by company presidents and


     other professional manipulators. "Content-free? Uh... that's anything
     printed on glossy paper." (See also {four-color glossies}.) "He gave a
     talk on the implications of electronic networks for postmodernism and
     the fin-de-siecle aesthetic. It was content-free."
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  content-free
       
          1. (By analogy with "context-free") Used of a message that
          adds nothing to the recipient's knowledge.  Though this
          adjective is sometimes applied to {flamage}, it more usually
          connotes derision for communication styles that exalt form
          over substance or are centred on concerns irrelevant to the
          subject ostensibly at hand.  Perhaps most used with reference
          to speeches by company presidents and other professional
          manipulators.
       
          See also {four-colour glossies}.
       
          2. Within British schools the term refers to general-purpose
          software such as a {word processor}, a {spreadsheet} or a
          program that tests spelling of words supplied by the teacher.
          This is in contrast to software designed to teach a particular
          topic, e.g. a plant growth simulation, an interactive periodic
          table or a program that tests spelling of a predetermined list
          of words.  Content-free software can be more cost-effective as
          it can be reused for many lessons throughout the syllabus.
       
          [{Jargon File}]
       
          (1998-08-26)