Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!wuarchive!udel!mmdf From: jones@eglin.af.mil (Calvin Jones, III) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: FOOBAR (aka FUBAR) Message-ID: <8259@nigel.udel.EDU> Date: 15 Jan 90 17:14:12 GMT Sender: mmdf@udel.EDU Lines: 18 J I L Gold asks: > Will SOMEONE please tell me why in source code snippets the variables > "foo","bar","foobar" and other variants invariably appear? The original acronym FUBAR comes from Fouled (or, more accurately, F**ked) Up Beyond All Recognition, a term that could well describe many computer programs written in the early days of computing when typical systems spent 90% on hardware and 10% on programs. Many times the professor would begin a lecture with the words "Suppose we have a program FOOBAR which calls subroutine FOO which then calls BAR". I have no idea how the spelling got changed. --- Cal // Cal Jones - Internet: or \X/ BBS: 904-243-6219 1200-9600HST 340Meg, all Amiga --------------------------------------------------------------------- NW Florida's first Amiga BBS running on NW Florida's FIRST AMIGA!