Template
From Wiki @ Karl Jones dot com
Template (Latin templum, a small timber or tie-beam) has a wide range of meanings in many fields.
Computer science and information technology
- Template (file format), a standardized non-executable file type used by computer software as a pre-formatted example on which to base other files, especially documents
- Template (C++), a tool for generic programming especially in the C++ language
- Template metaprogramming, a programming technique used by a compiler to generate temporary source code
- Template method, an object-oriented design pattern
- Template processor, a system that combines a template with data to produce an output.
- Template (word processing), a standard document containing layout and styles used to configure word processing software
- Style sheet (web development) or master page on which you can globally edit and format graphic elements and text common to each page of a document
- Web template or web template system, a master page used to produce web pages
- A main document from which mail merge documents are created
Etymology
Alteration of templet, probably from French templet, diminutive of temple (“a weaver's stretcher”), from Latin templum (“a small timber, tie-beam, a purlin”), from Proto-Indo-European *temp- (“to pull, stretch”). Alteration of second syllable due to analogy with plate. Cognate with Faroese tamba (“to stretch out, relax”), Icelandic þamb (“a stretched, bloated, or extended belly”).
