it can either mean that a system is hard to see (like a pane of glass) or easy to see into (like a transparent gameboy).

these two meanings are pretty much exact opposites, and it's frequently difficult to know which one is being spoken about.

FORTH systems often pride themselves as following “radical transparency” due to their lack of encapsulation allowing powerful language extensions to be written in user code, while other programming languages advertising “transparent abstractions” that you can barely notice due to strong encapsulation.

it's also a metaphor, and as a general rule, metaphors should be avoided in technical writing, due to their potential for being misinterpreted.

#programming #terminology

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