Meaning of footgun | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Any feature likely to lead to the programmer or user shooting themselves in the foot.
   derogatory, humorous, slang
2. by extension, generalised from (1.): An opportunity or object that allows the unfortunate to mostly figuratively but sometimes literally shoot themselves in the foot. A less obvious footgun may be a pitfall (1.).

Examples

“This is a footgun! ES6 should have⟳ specified that it either fulfills, rejects, or just throws some sort⟳ of synchronous error. Unfortunately, because of precedence in Promise⟳ libraries predating ES6 Promise⟳, they had to leave⟳ this gotcha in there, […]”

“If it is what Douglas Crockford might call⟳ a “footgun,” then at the very least, condoning and standardizing the “footwounds” will make⟳ problems easier to search⟳ for and fix⟳.”

“Let's have⟳ a look⟳ at one of the ways a service locator can become⟳ a foot gun. We're going to look⟳ at the anti-pattern of using the DI container directly in your code, thereby breaking inversion of control⟳ and generally shooting yourself in the foot.”

CEFR level