Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!sun!gakbox!gak
From: gak@gakbox.Sun.COM (Richard Stueven)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: "foo" origin
Message-ID: <128793@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 5 Dec 89 14:50:31 GMT
References: <15080002@hpfijdw.HP.COM> <576@torch.co.uk>
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Reply-To: gak@sun.UUCP (Richard Stueven)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 24

In article <576@torch.co.uk> richard@torch.co.uk (Richard Nuttall) writes:
>jdw@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 ()".  Do any of you gurus from way
>>back know what this stands for????
>
> [ ... ]
>Someone in Dec, some time ago wanted a name to use in an example in a document,
>but didn't want the swear word in there. To disguise this, the word FOO was
>used instead of FU.

In an old (late '30s) Daffy Duck cartoon, he parades around carrying
a sign that says "FOO!".  No explanation was given; this was in the
days when he was *really* daffy.


Richard Stueven                                  gak@sun.com

***These opinions belong to Ernie and his little pal Gus.***
              ***He's mad!  Mad, I tell you!***