mpatnode@polyslo.UUCP (Mike Patnode) (12/01/86)
Followup-To:
(I've never seen a line eater, I have to read all off these.)
Alas, I am taking the initiative to try to find an answer to my office
mate's lifelong burning question. Since my answer wasn't acceptable she
asked me to post the question here. So here it goes.....
Does anybody out there in netland know the origins of the word "foo".
As often seen in may programming examples. My explanation was a diveration
of the acronym (sp?) "fubar" but since I work for the state this answer was
unacceptable.
Any ideas? All input welcome.cetron@utah-cs.UUCP (Edward J Cetron) (12/04/86)
yep, you were right.... fubar (fouled/f**ked up beyond all recognition/repair) soon gave way to foobar and thence to foo and bar and other glorious combinations. -ed cetron
gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) (12/04/86)
In article <246@polyslo.UUCP> mpatnode@polyslo.UUCP (Mike Patnode) writes: > ... My explanation was a diveration [derivation?] > of the acronym "fubar" but since I work for the state this answer was > unacceptable. Does this mean that state employees find the truth unacceptable, or what? That really is where this usage of "foo" came from. (There is an old word "phoo", or "fooey", indicating derision, that supplies some of the connotation for this usage of "foo".)
berry@solaria..ARPA (Berry Kercheval) (12/05/86)
In article <5426@brl-smoke.ARPA> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) writes: >(There is an old word "phoo", or "fooey", indicating derision, >that supplies some of the connotation for this usage of "foo".) And 'foo' has even been used in 'real' literature... -- "Suddenly he would brandish a paperweight and shout `Foo, you rat! I'll put nine grams of lead in your skull!'" - A. Solzhenitsyn, 'The Gulag Archipelago' -- Berry Kercheval -- berry@s1-c.arpa -- mordor!berry
gore@nucsrl.UUCP (Jacob Gore) (12/07/86)
> berry@solaria..ARPA (Berry Kercheval): >> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>): >>(There is an old word "phoo", or "fooey", indicating derision, >>that supplies some of the connotation for this usage of "foo".) >And 'foo' has even been used in 'real' literature... >-- >"Suddenly he would brandish a paperweight and shout `Foo, you rat! I'll put >nine grams of lead in your skull!'" - A. Solzhenitsyn, 'The Gulag Archipelago' >-- Well, Solzhenitsyn's "foo!" is, actually, a Russian expression. It has several meanings, the most common ones are, perhaps, "yuck!" and "scat!" Jacob Gore Northwestern University, Computer Science Research Lab {ihnp4,chinet}!nucsrl!gore
marco@andromeda.UUCP (the wharf rat) (12/09/86)
Any DEC user knows that fubar means
_F_ailed _U_ni_B_us _A_ddress _R_egister. As in
"Your UniBus is, like, totally fubar, man"
"Machine check, type 0
cp Read Timeout",
W.ratcraig@dcl-cs.UUCP (12/09/86)
In article <159@andromeda.UUCP> marco@andromeda.UUCP (the wharf rat) writes: > > Any DEC user knows that fubar means > _F_ailed _U_ni_B_us _A_ddress _R_egister. As in > "Your UniBus is, like, totally fubar, man" > And I always thought that FUBAR stood for F****d Up Beyond All Recognition you live and learn Craig.
mouse@mcgill-vision.UUCP (der Mouse) (12/21/86)
In article <89@dcl-csvax.comp.lancs.ac.uk>, craig@comp.lancs.ac.uk (Craig Wylie) writes: > In article <159@andromeda.UUCP> marco@andromeda.UUCP (the wharf rat) writes: >> Any DEC user knows that fubar means >> _F_ailed _U_ni_B_us _A_ddress _R_egister. As in >> "Your UniBus is, like, totally fubar, man" > And I always thought that FUBAR stood for > F****d Up Beyond All Recognition > you live and learn It does. That's what the "As in ..." comment is about. Can't anyone recognize a joke without a :-)?! By the way, wharf rat isn't joking about the DEC meaning. VAXen really do have a failed UNIbus address register, and the documentation (eg, the architecture reference manual) really does call it the FUBAR. der Mouse USA: {ihnp4,decvax,akgua,utzoo,etc}!utcsri!mcgill-vision!mouse think!mosart!mcgill-vision!mouse Europe: mcvax!decvax!utcsri!mcgill-vision!mouse ARPAnet: think!mosart!mcgill-vision!mouse@harvard.harvard.edu
dave@onfcanim.UUCP (Dave Martindale) (01/06/87)
In article <584@mcgill-vision.UUCP> mouse@mcgill-vision.UUCP (der Mouse) writes: > >By the way, wharf rat isn't joking about the DEC meaning. VAXen really >do have a failed UNIbus address register, and the documentation (eg, >the architecture reference manual) really does call it the FUBAR. The best part of this one is that it did make it into the manual! But there is other humour in DEC hardware. If, someday, you are casually browsing through the VAX 780 circuit diagrams, stop on the page coded "TBMW". (To find it, the drawings are in order by backplane slot; board TBM is slot 6. Once you've found the TBM diagrams, the 4th letter of the drawing code is just an alphabetical sequence number). As you look around this drawing, you'll see signals with ordinary hardware-ese names like EN UNALIGN TRAP H, EN TB PAR L, and WRITE CHECK H. But you'll also find AARDVARK L, KINKAJOU L, and WOMBAT L. Anyone care to speculate on what they do? Then there's the apocryphal story about the PDP-11's sign extend instruction. The mnemonic op code was, of course, SEX. That one got changed to SXT before the manuals were printed.
jesup@steinmetz.UUCP (01/07/87)
In article <584@mcgill-vision.UUCP> mouse@mcgill-vision.UUCP (der Mouse) writes: >As you look around this drawing, you'll see signals with ordinary >hardware-ese names like EN UNALIGN TRAP H, EN TB PAR L, and WRITE CHECK H. >But you'll also find AARDVARK L, KINKAJOU L, and WOMBAT L. >Anyone care to speculate on what they do? Then there were two low memory locations in the venerable C-64. These had to do with handling the serial port (simulated in software). They were labeled C3PO and R2D2. Randell Jesup jesup@ge-crd.arpa jesup@steinmetz.uucp (seismo!rochester!steinmetz!jesup)
jdb@mordor.s1.gov (John Bruner) (01/08/87)
> Then there's the apocryphal story about the PDP-11's sign extend > instruction. The mnemonic op code was, of course, SEX. That one got > changed to SXT before the manuals were printed. The Motorola 6809 sign-extend instruction is SEX. The PDP-11 may be SEXless, but it does have an SOB (Subtract One and Branch). [Most 11's do. Old 11's without EIS don't.] -- John Bruner (S-1 Project, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) MILNET: jdb@mordor.s1.gov (415) 422-0758 UUCP: ...!ucbvax!decwrl!mordor!jdb ...!seismo!mordor!jdb
matt@oddjob.UUCP (01/11/87)
In article <15176@onfcanim.UUCP> dave@onfcanim.UUCP (Dave Martindale) writes: >Then there's the apocryphal story about the PDP-11's sign extend >instruction. The mnemonic op code was, of course, SEX. That one got >changed to SXT before the manuals were printed. An old Harris I used to use (a /6 I think) had a square-root instruction called SEX. Matt Crawford Let's send the Russians defective lifestyle accessories!
greg@xios.UUCP (Greg Franks) (01/12/87)
In article <15176@onfcanim.UUCP> dave@onfcanim.UUCP (Dave Martindale) writes: >Then there's the apocryphal story about the PDP-11's sign extend >instruction. The mnemonic op code was, of course, SEX. That one got >changed to SXT before the manuals were printed. Motorola had more guts - the sign extend instruction on the 6809 was called SEX.
markp@valid.UUCP (Mark P.) (01/19/87)
> > Then there's the apocryphal story about the PDP-11's sign extend > > instruction. The mnemonic op code was, of course, SEX. That one got > > changed to SXT before the manuals were printed. > > The Motorola 6809 sign-extend instruction is SEX. > > The PDP-11 may be SEXless, but it does have an SOB (Subtract One and > Branch). [Most 11's do. Old 11's without EIS don't.] > -- > John Bruner (S-1 Project, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) > MILNET: jdb@mordor.s1.gov (415) 422-0758 > UUCP: ...!ucbvax!decwrl!mordor!jdb ...!seismo!mordor!jdb And then there is the RCA COSMAC 1802 SEX instruction, which sets the X register to a number between 0 and 15 (immediate operand only), which in turn determines which of the 16 "general-purpose" (all equally worthless :-)) registers can be used in the indirect mode at any given time. Mark Papamarcos Valid Logic hplabs!{ridge,pesnta}!valid!markp
rbj@icst-cmr.arpa (Root Boy Jim) (01/20/87)
>Then there's the apocryphal story about the PDP-11's sign extend >instruction. The mnemonic op code was, of course, SEX. That one got >changed to SXT before the manuals were printed. Motorola had more guts - the sign extend instruction on the 6809 was called SEX. That was 10 years later. Besides, what fun would a `SXTual Revolution' be? (Root Boy) Jim "Just Say Yes" Cottrell <rbj@icst-cmr.arpa>
black@ee.UCLA.EDU (Rex Black) (01/20/87)
> >Then there's the apocryphal story about the PDP-11's sign extend > >instruction. The mnemonic op code was, of course, SEX. That one got > >changed to SXT before the manuals were printed. > Motorola had more guts - the sign extend instruction on the 6809 was > called SEX. > That was 10 years later. Besides, what fun would a `SXTual Revolution' be? > (Root Boy) Jim "Just Say Yes" Cottrell <rbj@icst-cmr.arpa> How about the Z80 instruction "POPI"? Someone at Zilog must have been eating their spinach! Rex Black black@ee.ucla.edu ARPA ...!{ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf,trwspp}!ucla-cs!uclaee!black UUCP Disclaimer: The preceding was produced by a random-character generator using digitized Led Zeppelin albums played backwards as the seeds. Therefore, any opinions above represent those of the netherworld and should not be construed as reflecting on myself or the UCLA EE Dept.
greg@utcsri.UUCP (Gregory Smith) (01/21/87)
In article <2819@brl-adm.ARPA> black@ee.UCLA.EDU (Rex Black) writes: >How about the Z80 instruction "POPI"? Someone at Zilog must have been >eating their spinach! That's "POP IY", sailor! -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Greg Smith University of Toronto UUCP: ..utzoo!utcsri!greg Have vAX, will hack...
Fisch@cui.UUCP (FISCHER Florian) (01/25/87)
Never heard of a function called "sin" ?