"foo" origin

Fred Bourgeois fjb at metaware.metaware.com
Tue Nov 21 15:17:55 AEST 1989


In article <19100003 at hpfijdw.HP.COM> jdw at hpfijdw.HP.COM (Jeff Wood) writes:
    >In my lengthy career in Computer Science at the University,
    >many professors used the acronym "foo".  None of which knew
    >its origins.  Examples of code were called "foo.c", functions
    >were called "int foo ()".

"foo" comes from "fubar", which (to use the officially sanctioned
US ARMY syntax, which happens to be its origin) is "FUBAR" (acronym).

FUBAR --> "Fowled" Up Beyond All Recognition.
You can substitute other words beginning with "F" if desired.

					-fjb
Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously, and so do I.
Fred Bourgeois	     [Insert standard disclaimers here]		MetaWare, Inc.
fjb at metaware.com			|		  2161 Delaware Avenue
...!{acad,amdcad}!metaware!fjb		|	     Santa Cruz, CA 95060-2806



More information about the Comp.unix.questions mailing list