well FUBAR is what you said.
<-------------copypasted-------------->
metasyntactic variable /n./
A name used in examples and understood to stand for whatever thing is under
discussion, or any random member of a class of things under discussion. The word foo
is the canonical example. To avoid confusion, hackers never (well, hardly ever) use
`foo' or other words like it as permanent names for anything. In filenames, a common
convention is that any filename beginning with a metasyntactic-variable name is a
scratch file that may be deleted at any time.
To some extent, the list of one's preferred metasyntactic variables is a cultural
signature. They occur both in series (used for related groups of variables or objects)
and as singletons. Here are a few common signatures:
foo, bar, baz, quux, quuux, quuuux...:
MIT/Stanford usage, now found everywhere (thanks largely to early versions of this
lexicon!). At MIT (but not at Stanford), baz dropped out of use for a while in the
1970s and '80s. A common recent mutation of this sequence inserts qux before quux.
bazola, ztesch:
Stanford (from mid-'70s on).
foo, bar, thud, grunt:
This series was popular at CMU. Other CMU-associated variables include gorp.
foo, bar, fum:
This series is reported to be common at XEROX PARC.
fred, barney:
See the entry for fred. These tend to be Britishisms.
corge, grault, flarp:
Popular at Rutgers University and among GOSMACS hackers.
zxc, spqr, wombat:
Cambridge University (England).
shme
Berkeley, GeoWorks, Ingres. Pronounced /shme/ with a short /e/.
snork
Brown University, early 1970s.
foo, bar, zot
Helsinki University of Technology, Finland.
blarg, wibble
New Zealand.
toto, titi, tata, tutu
France.
pippo, pluto, paperino
Italy. Pippo /pee'po/ and Paperino /pa-per-ee'-no/ are the Italian names for Goofy and
Donald Duck.
aap, noot, mies
The Netherlands. These are the first words a child used to learn to spell on a Dutch
spelling board.
Of all these, only `foo' and `bar' are universal (and baz nearly so). The compounds
foobar and `foobaz' also enjoy very wide currency.
Some jargon terms are also used as metasyntactic names; barf and mumble, for example.
See also Commonwealth Hackish for discussion of numerous metasyntactic variables found
in Great Britain and the Commonwealth.
<---------end copypaste--------------->
Hth
Deneb
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bkwyrm [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: 1. elokuuta 2001 1:13
> To: Ryan Davis/Pamela Karr; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: Way off topic...
>
>
> Le Tue, Jul 31, 2001 at 04:58:17PM -0500, Ryan Davis/Pamela
> Karr a dit le suivant:
> } Where did 'foo' and 'bar' come from?
>
> I was always under the impression that they came from the old
> military(?) acronym FUBAR, which stood for
> "f*cked up beyond all recognition", at least according to good
> ol' dad. :)
>
> --
>
> Namaste,
>
> Kristin
>
> Kristin Anne Igaki [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Internal Engineering 1010 Turquoise, Ste. 201
> BlueMountain.com San Diego, CA 92109
> A division of Excite@Home phone: 858.539.5444
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