fire and forget

English

Noun

fire and forget (uncountable)

1. (military) A kind of missile guidance system which does not require further control after launch, and can hit its target without the launcher being in line of sight of the target.
2. (programming, attributive) The practice of transmitting or raising something, such as an event, and then proceeding without checking for any result or response.
   • 2013, Addy Osmani, Developing Backbone.js Applications, page 175:

     An event aggregator facilitates a fire-and-forget model of communication. The object triggering the event doesn't care if there are any subscribers. It just fires the event and moves on. A mediator, though, might use events to make decisions, but it is definitely not fire and forget.

   • 2014, Richard Blewett, Andrew Clymer, Pro Asynchronous Programming with .NET, page 25:

     Post is a “fire and forget” where the UI thread work is performed asynchronously; Send is synchronous in that the call blocks until the UI thread work has been performed.

Translations

missile guidance system

• Finnish: ammu ja unohda
• Russian: систе́ма самонаведения (sistéma samonavedenija)

Adjective

fire and forget (not comparable)

1. Not requiring further control, feedback, or response after an initial action, launch, etc.

See also

• set-and-forget