syntactic salt

syntactic salt
 n.

   The opposite of {syntactic sugar}, a feature designed to make it
   harder to write bad code. Specifically, syntactic salt is a hoop the
   programmer must jump through just to prove that he knows what's going
   on, rather than to express a program action. Some programmers consider
   required type declarations to be syntactic salt. A requirement to
   write end if, end while, end do, etc.: to terminate the last block
   controlled by a control construct (as opposed to just end) would
   definitely be syntactic salt. Syntactic salt is like the real thing in
   that it tends to raise hackers' blood pressures in an unhealthy way.
   Compare {candygrammar}.
    

syntactic salt

   The opposite of {syntactic sugar}, a feature designed to make
   it harder to write bad code.  Specifically, syntactic salt is
   a hoop the programmer must jump through just to prove that he
   knows what's going on, rather than to express a program
   action.  Some programmers consider required type declarations
   to be syntactic salt.  A requirement to write "end if", "end
   while", "end do", etc. to terminate the last block controlled
   by a control construct (as opposed to just "end") would
   definitely be syntactic salt.  Syntactic salt is like the real
   thing in that it tends to raise hackers' blood pressures in an
   unhealthy way.  Compare {candygrammar}.

   [{Jargon File}]