From: G DOT DegliEsposti AT ads DOT it To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Message-ID: Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 12:16:10 +0100 Subject: Re: OFF TOPIC: Re: foo Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Precedence: bulk >>Exactly correct. "Foo," along with "bar" and sometimes "baz," is a >>placeholder used in examples. When I say, "type 'gcc -o foo.exe >>foo.c'," I mean that you should substitute "foo" in the example with >>whatever your real-world program is named. >> >Poser: Does there exist a universal, as in non-English-specific, >placeholder? I don't think so... I think each country has its own... of course we all mainly use the american ones as long as we speak American English... >I have used foo, bar and baz all my (programming) life and it >never occurred to me, being the American English centric chump I am, that >someone non-American would have a problem understanding these conventions. Well, my experience is this: at first it was quite difficult to understand their meaning, but it was like "afaik", "imho" or "rtfm", they were just some words used conventionally for a particular meaning. It was not important what the acronym was. Of course I find it strange to use these placeholders, but for me it is also strange to *write in English*! :-) >I intuited immediately in my first Fortran class in (gasp) 1979 (ahh, the >good ole days of punchcards and greenbar...) what foo, bar and baz meant. What if I send you a sample of italian placeholders? :-) ciao Giacomo