docbrain@netmbx.UUCP (Frank Seidinger) (08/07/90)
Hi Netters!
Maybe i am really stupid, but what i never understood is the meaning
of 'foo bar'. What stands this for. I really see it everywhere as
examples for nearly everything. It's a real problem to me (and maybe
for the million others, they don't try to ask).
Is 'foo bar' better to understand if you are not german?
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----------------------------------------------------------------------vlb@magic.apple.com (Vicki Brown) (08/09/90)
In article <994@netmbx.UUCP> docbrain@netmbx.UUCP (Frank Seidinger) writes: > >Hi Netters! > > Maybe i am really stupid, but what i never understood is the meaning > of 'foo bar'. What stands this for. I really see it everywhere as > examples for nearly everything. It's a real problem to me (and maybe > for the million others, they don't try to ask). > > Is 'foo bar' better to understand if you are not german? As I have always understood it, this is a corruption of FUBAR, which supposedly was coined in the US Army. The Acronym stands for: Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition (Other F-words may be substituted :-) Has anyone heard a different etymology? Vicki Brown A/UX Development Group Apple Computer, Inc. Internet: vlb@apple.com MS 58A, 10440 Bubb Rd. UUCP: {sun,amdahl,decwrl}!apple!vlb Cupertino, CA 95014 USA Ooit'n Normaal Mens Ontmoet? En..., Beviel't? (Did you ever meet a normal person? Did you enjoy it?)
samlb@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (Sam Bassett RCS) (08/09/90)
During World War II, there was an expression: "FUBAR" standing, approximately, for "Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition" (= total chaos, as perpetrated by the Military Mind). Most of the classical hackers were old enough to have heard the phrase used by their parents and older brothers, and applied it to the mass confusion of computerdom. They were also lazy typists, so they brok it up into two short words, foo and bar, according to the way it was pronounced by Americans. This is probably in "Frequently Asked Questions . . ." Sam'l Bassett, Sterling Software @ NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field CA 94035 Work: (415) 604-4792; Home: (415) 969-2644 samlb@well.sf.ca.us samlb@ames.arc.nasa.gov <Disclaimer> := 'Sterling doesn't _have_ opinions -- much less NASA!'
art@pilikia.pegasus.com (Art Neilson) (08/09/90)
This should be in the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) list, if not already. The term 'foo bar' is derived from the WWII acronymn FUBAR, or F--ked Up Beyond All Recognition. -- Arthur W. Neilson III | ARPA: art@pilikia.pegasus.com Bank of Hawaii Tech Support | UUCP: uunet!ucsd!nosc!pegasus!pilikia!art
bk7295@leah.Albany.Edu (Brian A. Kell) (08/09/90)
You know, I think the original poster of this question, who lives in Germany, wasn't asking for the etymology of FooBar, but rather the USAGE of it: i.e. What do people MEAN when they use it. Someone really should tell him that it doesn't really MEAN anything! It's just a filler word... :-) Brian Kell
gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn) (08/10/90)
In article <994@netmbx.UUCP> docbrain@netmbx.UUCP (Frank Seidinger) writes: >'foo bar'. What stands this for. If this isn't in the Frequently Asked Questions list, it should be. "foo.bar" in its various forms traces back to "FUBAR", which is an acronym for Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition, apparently in wide use with the U.S. military since World War II, possibly earlier. It was used in contexts similar to those in which "SNAFU" was used. The use of "FOO.BAR" as a sample filename in computer user documentation was undoubtedly meant to add a little humorous interest to the example; I've seen such examples dating from the mid-1970s.
george@hls0.hls.oz (George Turczynski) (08/10/90)
As you can see from the subject line, "foo bar" came from "fubar". I think this MUST be in one of the FAQ lists, no ? Ich hoffe dass das genug klar ist. -- | George P. J. Turczynski. |---------------------------------------------------- | Computer Systems Engineer. | ACSnet: george@highland.oz | I can't speak for the | | Highland Logic Pty. Ltd. | Phone: +61 48 683490 | company, I can barely | | Suite 1, 348-354 Argyle St | Fax: +61 48 683474 | speak for myself... | | Moss Vale. NSW. Australia. 2577 |----------------------------------------------------
dave@hera.scs.com (Dave Holcomb) (08/14/90)
In addition to the military reference to an items state of repair, my
VAX HARDWARE HANDBOOK (1982-1983), on page 293, discusses the Failed
UNIBUS Address Registers (FUBAR): (I quote)
The FUBAR contains the upper 16 bits of the UNIBUS address translated
from an SBI address during a previous software-initiated data transfer.
The occurrence of either of two errors indicated in the status register
will lock the FUBAR: UNIBUS Select Time Out (UBSTO) and UNIBUS Slave
Sync Time OUT (UBSSYNTO). When the error bit is cleared the register
will be unlocked.
Obviously, the original purveyors of "foo bar" (i.e. the original BSD
UNIX crew) saw the reference in the VAX manual; saw that the DEC VAX
designers had had a "field-day" when they designed the hardware [and
laughed even harder when the DEC censors blindly accepted the register
"designation"], and "ran" with the joke.
--
Dave Holcomb, Mentor Graphics, Silicon Design Division (formerly SCS/CAECO)
5295 South 300 West Suite 300
Murray, UT 84107-4763 USA
(801)265-8007
caeco!dave@cs.utah.educhris@mimsy.umd.edu (Chris Torek) (08/15/90)
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)