Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • World
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (No Skin)
  • No Skin
Collapse
Code Project
  1. Home
  2. The Lounge
  3. Foo & Bar?

Foo & Bar?

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Lounge
question
10 Posts 9 Posters 0 Views 1 Watching
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • S Offline
    S Offline
    Stravaiger
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    Madainn mhath na h-uile, I was just wondering where FOO and BAR come from. I've grown up with them (programming-wise) and would just like to know how they came about. PS - any devs out there speak Gaelic? Cheers, Stravaiger Le gach deagh dhurachd

    J 7 S R 4 Replies Last reply
    0
    • S Stravaiger

      Madainn mhath na h-uile, I was just wondering where FOO and BAR come from. I've grown up with them (programming-wise) and would just like to know how they came about. PS - any devs out there speak Gaelic? Cheers, Stravaiger Le gach deagh dhurachd

      J Offline
      J Offline
      Jon Sagara
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      I always guessed that it was a misspelling of the acronym F.U.B.A.R. :-D Jon Sagara "When I was fourteen, I was amazed at how unintelligent my father was. By the time I turned twenty-one, I was astounded how much he had learned in the past seven years." -- Mark Twain

      T 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • J Jon Sagara

        I always guessed that it was a misspelling of the acronym F.U.B.A.R. :-D Jon Sagara "When I was fourteen, I was amazed at how unintelligent my father was. By the time I turned twenty-one, I was astounded how much he had learned in the past seven years." -- Mark Twain

        T Offline
        T Offline
        Tomasz Sowinski
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        F.U.B.A.R == F*cked up beyond all recognition ? :) Tomasz Sowinski -- http://www.shooltz.com.pl

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • S Stravaiger

          Madainn mhath na h-uile, I was just wondering where FOO and BAR come from. I've grown up with them (programming-wise) and would just like to know how they came about. PS - any devs out there speak Gaelic? Cheers, Stravaiger Le gach deagh dhurachd

          7 Offline
          7 Offline
          783625435
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          Some clever idiot always has to look these things up, and here I am (the idiot part is right at least): http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/foobar.html (also has a link to the word 'foo' there too..) No, I don't speak Gaelic, but i would love to learn.. :) ::Clynt

          1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • S Stravaiger

            Madainn mhath na h-uile, I was just wondering where FOO and BAR come from. I've grown up with them (programming-wise) and would just like to know how they came about. PS - any devs out there speak Gaelic? Cheers, Stravaiger Le gach deagh dhurachd

            S Offline
            S Offline
            Stan Shannon
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            However, coined in a less vulgar era, "FUBAR" almost certainly originally meant "Fouled Up Beyond all Repair". Of course, I suppose our generation cannot resist the urge to bring everyone else down to our potty-mouthed level of discourse.

            T 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • S Stan Shannon

              However, coined in a less vulgar era, "FUBAR" almost certainly originally meant "Fouled Up Beyond all Repair". Of course, I suppose our generation cannot resist the urge to bring everyone else down to our potty-mouthed level of discourse.

              T Offline
              T Offline
              Tim Smith
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              The source was WWII. Trust me, when you are being shot at, you flip flop between being a saint and a sinner. It was the more gutter term. But I am sure the cleaned up version was used in more polite circles. http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=fubar Tim Smith Descartes Systems Sciences, Inc.

              P J S 3 Replies Last reply
              0
              • T Tim Smith

                The source was WWII. Trust me, when you are being shot at, you flip flop between being a saint and a sinner. It was the more gutter term. But I am sure the cleaned up version was used in more polite circles. http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=fubar Tim Smith Descartes Systems Sciences, Inc.

                P Offline
                P Offline
                Phil Boyd
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                Let's see: There was also BFT, BFR, and the always popular SNAFU. Phil Boyd MCP "I took the road less traveled..."

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • T Tim Smith

                  The source was WWII. Trust me, when you are being shot at, you flip flop between being a saint and a sinner. It was the more gutter term. But I am sure the cleaned up version was used in more polite circles. http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=fubar Tim Smith Descartes Systems Sciences, Inc.

                  J Offline
                  J Offline
                  jkgh
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  I've spent years wondering what this was - I came to the conclusion it was a purely American term. Thanks to everyone. Have a good weekend. ATL Student :rolleyes:

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • T Tim Smith

                    The source was WWII. Trust me, when you are being shot at, you flip flop between being a saint and a sinner. It was the more gutter term. But I am sure the cleaned up version was used in more polite circles. http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=fubar Tim Smith Descartes Systems Sciences, Inc.

                    S Offline
                    S Offline
                    Stan Shannon
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    Sorry you guys, but you have been "Hollywoodized". I have known many WWII era vets, who were otherwise very fouled mouthed, who simply did not use the word "fuck" in the context it is used today. That is, to mean something is not functioning properly. To them the word meant exclusively : To have sexual intercourse. My own father, a WWII sailor could cuss a blue streak but the "f word" was not in his vocabulary, as with MOST of his generation.

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • S Stravaiger

                      Madainn mhath na h-uile, I was just wondering where FOO and BAR come from. I've grown up with them (programming-wise) and would just like to know how they came about. PS - any devs out there speak Gaelic? Cheers, Stravaiger Le gach deagh dhurachd

                      R Offline
                      R Offline
                      Ravi Bhavnani
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #10

                      As Clynt has mentioned, foo and bar have nothing to do with FUBAR. Trivia: In the mid 80's, I worked at DEC, where users were identified by their node and username, using the format ::. My node name was "FOO" and my username was "BAR" (my initials backwards), causing my id to be FOO::BAR. I used to receive innumerable emails and network connections from people testing their code. Most of the time, the emails would say "This should fail...". I fondly remember replying to the sender saying, "It succeeded!". :-) More trivia: My friend Larry who sat in a nearby cube had a machine whose node name was NODE and a username USERNAME. Emails sent to NODE::USERNAME (usually by admin staff learning how to use the MAIL utility) were cheerfully answered by him. Even more trivia: Foo and Bar are near and dear to my heart. If you don't believe me, check out my product FooBar at http://www.matrixsoftware.com. :-) Cheers, /ravi "There is always one more bug..." http://www.ravib.com ravib@ravib.com

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      Reply
                      • Reply as topic
                      Log in to reply
                      • Oldest to Newest
                      • Newest to Oldest
                      • Most Votes


                      • Login

                      • Don't have an account? Register

                      • Login or register to search.
                      • First post
                        Last post
                      0
                      • Categories
                      • Recent
                      • Tags
                      • Popular
                      • World
                      • Users
                      • Groups