4 ms·
I don't know the story of the entry of foo into the computer science lexicon, but it is the case that the early days of computers were populated with a fair num
by fsckboy 2y ago
I don't know the story of the entry of foo into the computer science lexicon, but it is the case that the early days of computers were populated with a fair number of military veterans because early computers were mostly used in military applications so that produced people with computer experience (not to mention the compulsory draft which meant that a large number of people would have military experience anyway).
FUBAR ("fucked up beyond all recognition") was supposedly a military slang phrase.
And the popular comic strip Smoky Stover starting in the 1930's used the word "Foo" wrt a firefighting character perhaps giving that spelling more currency.
this is the Foomobile from that comic https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=Foomobile&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=Foomobile&iax=images&ia=ima...
- ahazred8ta 2y agoThe missing link is 'FURCHTBAR'. Smokey Stover started the meme of substituting 'foo' into words. 1930s german language classes turned furchtbar (frightful) into 'foo-bar'. The US military acronymized it into FUBAR. Apparently MIT adopted fu() and bar() as algebra placeholders. I'm partial to the 1938 song WHAT THIS COUNTRY NEEDS IS FOO - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W2pljKyCgwc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=W2pljKyCgwc
- chiph 2y agoNo "supposedly" about it. FUBAR is still in common use. As is RHIP (Rank Hath Its Privileges) and BOHICA (Bend Over Here It Comes Again)