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RFC 3092 – Etymology of “Foo” (2001)
- alhazrod 8mo agoEchoes of ARPANET.
- taybin 8mo agoNo mention of “baz”
- stephenlf 8mo agoPart 2, 3rd definition of “foo”mentions baz
- hk__2 8mo agoIt’s literally in the first sentence of the first definition: > bar /bar/ n. [JARGON] The second metasyntactic variable, after foo and before baz.
- rendaw 8mo agoIn the etymology section, I presume. And I can't find it either, if it is there.
- _ZeD_ 8mo agofunny how in italian the "Metasyntactic variable"[1] are "pippo", "pluto" and "paperino" [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metasyntactic_variable#Italian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metasyntactic_variable#Italian
- tpetricek 8mo agoThere is an entire paper looking at the history, meaning and cultural significance of the foo, bar, baz words: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13347-019-00387-2 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13347-019-00387-2
- ahazred8ta 8mo agoSmokey Stover, the 1935 "Where there's foo, there's fire" guy, was a TV cartoon in the 1970s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokey_Stover#Animation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokey_Stover#Animation Influenced by german furchtbar/foobar/fubar, MIT used fu() and bar() in the late '30s.
- readthenotes1 8mo agoThe paper goes deeper
- einpoklum 8mo agoPaywalled link? Come on, we're past that. Here's the article: https://sci-hub.st/10.1007/s13347-019-00387-2 https://sci-hub.st/10.1007/s13347-019-00387-2 Foo, Bar, Baz…: The Metasyntactic Variable and the Programming Language Hierarchy / by Brian Lennon
- ahazred8ta 8mo ago♫♫ "WHAT THIS COUNTRY NEEDS IS FOO" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2pljKyCgwc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2pljKyCgwc
- johnthescott 8mo agof*kt up beyond all recognition. semper fidelis i first heard "foo bar" from eric allman at berkeley office of britton-lee, mid 1980s. i vaguely recall eric wrote a column about history of "foo bar".
- ksec 8mo agoA lot of programming languages uses "Foo bar" during introduction without actually explaining why "Foo" and why "bar". Before the age of Google and Internet it was perhaps one of the most common question from speakers of non-English language.
- mvkel 8mo agoThis was one of the biggest hurdles I had to overcome when I was a wee lad combing through "Professional PHP Programming." All of the examples it gave were foo/bar, and I couldn't make the intellectual leap to understand what the real world use cases would be. It wasn't until I tried building something (mad libs) that things "clicked"
- exidy 8mo agoEven many decades later I remember the frustration in university 100-level CS courses of every new concept demonstrated with a mess of foo(), int* bar, void** baz scribbled on a overhead projector. Descriptive names are helpful, people! I think even back in the 90s C supported at least 31 characters.
- zabzonk 8mo agonaming is hard. my advice to junior programmers after i see them agonising over a name - "just call it x or foo for now, you are going to change it later anyway"
- paulddraper 8mo ago“It might be hard, but don’t let that stop you from making it worse” :)
- IFC_LLC 8mo agoI don’t understand how this article is not at the top of all times
- jibal 8mo agoApril 1, 2001
- PaulRobinson 8mo agoIETF have a habit of posting "fun" RFCs on the 1st April each year. Some of them are more famous for being completely daft ("avian carriers" and climbing into trees to watch 0s and 1s painted on the top of tanks being the two stand-out ones), but it doesn't mean that everything they do on that date is to be disregarded as nonsense.
- jibal 8mo agoSomething can be humorous without being nonsense, such as this RFC.
- B1FF_PSUVM 8mo agoI'll have an apotropaic inscription to go, please.
- thenoblesunfish 8mo agoThis location in Switzerland reminded me of some placeholder Python code. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_Pass https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_Pass
- junon 8mo agoIf you opened a bar there, it'd be the Foo Bar. Full circle.
- tonfa 8mo agoActually the river that goes next to it is called the Foobach (which would be pronounced close to foobar). I found that hilarious as I was hiking through that pass last year (beautiful area).
- paradox460 8mo agoHire a barman named Baz
- ithkuil 8mo agoAnd have them serve a cocktail called the quux
- crazygringo 8mo agohttps://foobarmelbourne.com/ https://foobarmelbourne.com/ https://www.foobarclt.com/ https://www.foobarclt.com/
- mac3n 8mo agoNow, tell us about "ZQX3".
- stackghost 8mo agoThis is the first time in my life encountering "ZQX3" in some context that suggests it has broad meaning. What does ZQX3 have to do with TFA?
- mac3n 8mo agofolklore was that IBM used it as an example of a bad variable name, based on Zarathustra Q Xerxes III Here it is, in fact! Page 19: http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/ibm/360/os/cobol/R29-0205-0_SYSTEM_360_COBOL_Program_Fundamentals_Text_196603.pdf http://bitsavers.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pdf/ibm/360/os/... > But if the programmer decided to use ZQX-3 in pl.ace of MINIMUM-BALANCE because it is shorter, or because he once met a cab driver named Zarathustra Q. Xerxes III, then it is a bad name.
- zahlman 8mo ago> First on the standard list of metasyntactic variables used in syntax examples (bar, baz, qux, quux, corge, grault, garply, waldo, fred, plugh, xyzzy, thud) I've seen foo, bar, baz, qu+x, plugh and xyxxy actually in use, not the others. I've not used "qux" or followed the convention of adding more u's. From me it's been just foo, bar, baz, quux and then some Monty Python inspired ones: spam, ni, ecky, ptong. Although eventually I learned enough about how to name things that I don't feel the temptation any more. I'll gladly pay that bit of joylessness to understand myself months later.
- orsorna 8mo agoI've never seen qu+x, except in the title of that Gundam installment released last year, Gundam gquuuuuux. I found this speculation on myanimelist sufficient, but there's no real confirmation afaik. https://myanimelist.net/forum/?goto=post&topicid=2209708&id=72596190 https://myanimelist.net/forum/?goto=post&topicid=2209708&id=...
- tombert 8mo agoBeing largely self taught, I ended reinventing a lot of lingo myself. My placeholder words are generally “blah”, “yo”, and “fart” unless other people are reading the code. I never claimed I was terribly mature.
- paradox460 8mo agoI've used Blarg and Honk ever since Red vs Blue carved them into my mind
- greatquux 8mo agoI stole this handle from GLS many many years ago and I use it pretty much everywhere. I guess I just love the idea of metasyntactic variables, and using that phrase whenever anyone asks me about my handle!
- userbinator 8mo agoNot to be confused with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmoo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmoo , although I have used that as a metasyntactic variable before.
- fholec 8mo agoTurns out “foo/bar/baz” has lore. I assumed it was just tribal placeholder magic. Now I’m wondering what other dev fossils we still carry around - IDDQD (Doom god-mode) is a personal favorite. What’s yours?
- kunley 8mo agoExcuse me, fossils?
- samplatt 8mo agoIt's only offensive if you're being carried around.
- maxbond 8mo agoI think they're referring to the artifacts (like foo) rather than people.
- kunley 8mo agoYes and still don't comprehend why to call certain things fossils if they are still used by virtually everybody
- maxbond 8mo agoPetroleum is used by everyone right? And it's a literal fossil. I wouldn't call it a fossil because all terminology has lore, but the idea as I understand it is that it's an artifact that outlived the context it was originally relevant in.
- kunley 8mo agoI think foo never outlived what it was from the beginning - a way to harmlessly goof around while describing complex systems & patterns. So, really dunno why the commenter above wanted to atribute all the fooness to something "ancient". PS. Unsure why to mix petroleum into this discussion..
- darth_avocado 8mo agoI’m disappointed it’s not originating from the Mexican “Foos”.
- rast1234 8mo ago> It has been plausibly suggested that "foobar" spread among early computer engineers partly because of FUBAR and partly because "foo bar" parses in electronics techspeak as an inverted foo signal. Can anyone educate me what "inverted foo signal" means here, in connection to electronics?
- 1970-01-01 8mo agoI always hated foo, bar, & baz. These vars are always pushed by uncreative individuals. I directly equate it with middle-management types that drive black BMWs and have the personality of milquetoast and golf. No thanks, I'll stick with zig, zag, and zip. If you don't like it too bad, write your own throwaway code.
- suprjami 8mo agoAt work we had a server called "fubar". I said this is going to inadvertently end up in customer communication, maybe we shouldn't be implying the word "fuck" to customers. Management agreed and had it renamed... to foobar.
- selenajennifer 8mo ago[dead]
- selenajennifer 8mo ago[dead]