From: jfn AT enteract DOT com (Jeremy Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: The meaning of FOO and BAR
Date: 23 Dec 1997 20:49:48 GMT
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Noam Rotem  <nrotem AT johnbryce DOT co DOT il> wrote:
>I see every here and there examples of code, using the prefixes FOO and BAR.
>I always consider it merely identifiers, ignoring their semantic meaning, 
>but I've got curious lately.
>Are these abbreviations or something? What are the originals of the 
>prefixes?

You might try reading the "new hacker's dictionary" (eg, the Jargon Lexicon)
which discusses the entymology of "foo" and "bar" and hundreds of other 
items which if you have a knowledge of will allow you to have a good working
knowledge of most of the lingo that unix programmers use.

http://www.wins.uva.nl/~mes/jargon/

Jeremy