Why is foo bar used

Use of this word at TMRC antedates my coming there. A foo counter could simply have randomly flashing lights, or could be a real counter with an obscure input. And from 's Jargon File 4. Earlier versions of this lexicon derived 'baz' as a Stanford corruption of bar. He says "It came from "Pogo". Albert the Alligator, when vexed or outraged, would shout 'Bazz Fazz! Further research under a joint Foocom and Anarcom grant expanded the law to be all embracing and universally applicable: If anything can go wrong, it will!

But let's remember this question is about code examples, so let's find "foo", "bar" and "foobar" published in code. So, Jargon File 4. Hart and Michael Levin:. Walter Mitty recalled on this site in I second the jargon file regarding Foo Bar. John V. Everett recalls in When I joined DEC in , foobar was already being commonly used as a throw-away file name. Since the x was also a 36 bit machine, foobar may have been used as a common file name there.

Foo and bar were also commonly used as file extensions. Since the text editors of the day operated on an input file and produced an output file, it was common to edit from a. It was also common to use foo to fill a buffer when editing with TECO. Daniel P. Smith in Dick Gruen had a device in his dorm room, the usual assemblage of B-battery, resistors, capacitors, and NE-2 neon tubes, which he called a "foo counter.

Robert Schuldenfrei in This too may be older, but that is where I first saw it. This was in Assembler. Paul M. Wexelblat in The earliest PDP-1 Assembler used two characters for symbols 18 bit machine programmers always left a few words as patch space to fix problems. Jump to patch space, do new code, jump back That space conventionally was named FU: which stood for Fxxx Up, the place where you fixed Fxxx Ups.

When spoken, it was known as FU space. Later Assemblers e. Bruce B. Reynolds in I haven't been able to find any references to foo bar as "inverted foo signal" as suggested in RFC and elsewhere. Atomic Energy Commission. For example:. If you are trying to explain a concept where the important part is not what is being done printing meow or bark for example but on how it is being done then removing the parts that you are familiar help:.

Now you have to focus on what is really happening, you are no longer able to guess at what is going to happen. So, the short version is, that foo, bar, and the like, are used to stress concepts where the content doesn't really matter but the idea does. In technology, the word was probably originally propagated through system manuals by Digital Equipment Corporation in s and early s.

Another possibility is that foobar evolved from electronics, as an inverted foo signal. This is because if a digital signal is active low so a negative or zero-voltage condition represents a "1" then a horizontal bar is commonly placed over the signal label. The terms' origins are not known with certainty, and several anecdotal theories have been advanced to identify them. Foobar may derive from the vulgar military acronym FUBAR, or it may have gained popularity due to the fact that it is pronounced the same.

Basically the idea is to convey your code without as much extraneous information that could possibly get away from how the code works i. These are nonsense words that in most cases can be substituted with more relevant example words. The first seen use of the terms date back to from 3 major projects namely:.

LISP is functional programming language and is considered the second oldest high level programming language which is in use even today. In fact, the 3 projects have shaped the computing systems we use today and have given us foo and bar as a practice used by them to make these major advancements. Foo bar baz flourished without explanation as to where, exactly, the terms came from. The quirky world of programming has its own style and brand of humor, sometimes popularizing arcane references from various sources that might be surprisingly mainstream, if not obvious.

Though foo cannot be traced to a single source, RFC points to several references to foo as a nonsensical word seen in comic strips and cartoons circa Hopefully yours, Indignant Mother of Five. And The Tech in December : General trend of thought might be best interpreted from the remarks made at the end of the ballots. I want to be an instant success and snow customers. Send me a degree in Foo Counters Foo Jung Let's find "foo", "bar" and "foobar" published in code examples.

Some more recallations. Walter Mitty recalled on this site in I second the jargon file regarding Foo Bar. Everett recalls in When I joined DEC in , foobar was already being commonly used as a throw-away file name. Smith in Dick Gruen had a device in his dorm room, the usual assemblage of B-battery, resistors, capacitors, and NE-2 neon tubes, which he called a "foo counter.

Wexelblat in The earliest PDP-1 Assembler used two characters for symbols 18 bit machine programmers always left a few words as patch space to fix problems. Community Bot 1 1 1 silver badge. Hugo Hugo That is a thorough answer! Add a comment. Sometimes simple questions like these get a ridiculous number of upvotes. To answer your question: I almost always start by going to Ask My Question and then typing in my question and looking at the automatically generated list of possible duplicates.

It works very well. Usually I have already searched on Google.. But not always. This time I looked at the metasyntactic variables article which did not have a history section which I ran across on one of the "possible duplicates": When foo and bar is not enough. OK, so I'm lazy. And yet you somehow managed to not find the Jargon file?

When I googled for your subject line, I found an article on Programmers. That's like stealing from a bank because another bank is better. Show 4 more comments.