Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!haven!mimsy!chris From: chris@mimsy.umd.edu (Chris Torek) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: 'foo bar' <- What's the meaning of? Summary: interminable nonsense Message-ID: <26026@mimsy.umd.edu> Date: 15 Aug 90 13:55:44 GMT References: Distribution: comp Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742 Lines: 27 Please, before asking about `foo', read the introduction to the net and ask locally. It always creates a stream of interminable partial, wrong, or otherwise not-quite-perfect answers which then cause further followups like this one. The word `foo' has been around for a long time. It appeared in old `Smokey Stover' cartoons in the 1920s and/or 30s (often on a license plate or other out-of-the-way place). The connection between `foo', `bar', and `foobar' and `fubar' is obvious; the connection between this foo and the one in the cartoons is less so. In WWII the armed forces came up with a whole series of acronyms, including FUBAR, SNAFU, and JANFU (F-ed Up Beyond All Recognition; Situation Normal---All F-ed Up; Joint Army-Navy F-Up). In the 1970s engineers at DEC designed the `Star' (the VAX-11/780) and snuck a `FUBAR' register into the Unibus adapter. In the 1950s and early 1960s the TMRC (Tech Model Railroad Club) at MIT made much use of many `nonsense words' which eventually became `hacker's jargon'. For details, see _The_Hacker's_Dictionary_ by Guy L. Steel Jr. You will find some of the above and a great deal more (e.g., the distinction between frob and tweak). -- In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163) Domain: chris@cs.umd.edu Path: uunet!mimsy!chris (New campus phone system, active sometime soon: +1 301 405 2750)