From: apothegm AT softcom DOT net (Nathan Thompson) Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp Subject: Re: The meaning of FOO and BAR Date: Tue, 23 Dec 1997 22:23:26 GMT Reply-To: apothegm AT softcom DOT net Message-ID: <34a038b2.1589529@news.softcom.net> References: <67p85c$p9d AT eve DOT enteract DOT com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.107.251.213 Lines: 20 To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp Precedence: bulk On 23 Dec 1997 20:49:48 GMT, jfn AT enteract DOT com (Jeremy Nelson) wrote: >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 The latest official distribution of the Jargon File can also be had at http://www.ccil.org/jargon/. In brief, though, 'foo' and 'bar' are used as placeholders for actual variable, function & file names. For example, when someone types "run zippo.exe on your file, like this: zippo foo", the person using the hypothetical 'zippo' program would type the actual filename instead of 'foo'. The words 'foo' and 'bar' come from the U.S. military's famous acronym, FUBAR ("F'd Up Beyond All Recognition"). Nathan Thompson