[ascoders] Re: AW: Re: [OT]
- From: <martink65@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <ascoders@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 13:34:25 +0100
hi,
näheres zu foo-bar von branden hall:
Well, in the orginal specification for C, the authors needed some variable
names that didn't imply any meaning. These are known as metasyntacitic
variables. One of the authors was ex-military, where a commonly used
acronym was F.U.B.A.R. (F'd up beyond all repair). They decided to split
this into two variables (since they did need more than one!) and made them
the same length by changing fu to foo.
Besides foo and bar there are a number of variables that have been passed
down through the annals of computer science. Below is the entry from the
New Hackers Dictionary:
:metasyntactic variable: n. A name used in examples and understood
to stand for whatever thing is under discussion, or any random
member of a class of things under discussion. The word {foo} is
the {canonical} example. To avoid confusion, hackers never
(well, hardly ever) use `foo' or other words like it as permanent
names for anything. In filenames, a common convention is that any
filename beginning with a metasyntactic-variable name is a
{scratch} file that may be deleted at any time.
To some extent, the list of one's preferred metasyntactic variables
is a cultural signature. They occur both in series (used for
related groups of variables or objects) and as singletons. Here
are a few common signatures:
{foo}, {bar}, {baz}, {quux}, quuux, quuuux...:
MIT/Stanford usage, now found everywhere (thanks largely to
early
versions of this lexicon!). At MIT, {baz} dropped out of use
for
a while in the 1970s and '80s. A common recent mutation of this
sequence inserts {qux} before {quux}.
{foo}, {bar}, thud, grunt:
This series was popular at CMU. Other CMU-associated variables
include {gorp}.
{foo}, {bar}, fum:
This series is reported common at XEROX PARC.
{fred}, {barney}:
See the entry for {fred}. These tend to be Britishisms.
{toto}, titi, tata, tutu:
Standard series of metasyntactic variables among francophones.
{corge}, {grault}, {flarp}:
Popular at Rutgers University and among {GOSMACS} hackers.
zxc, spqr, {wombat}:
Cambridge University (England).
Of all these, only `foo' and `bar' are universal (and {baz}
nearly so). The compounds {foobar} and `foobaz' also enjoy
very wide currency.
Some jargon terms are also used as metasyntactic names; {barf}
and {mumble}, for example. See also {{Commonwealth Hackish}}
for discussion of numerous metasyntactic variables found in Great
Britain and the Commonwealth.
// Branden J. Hall
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jursa, Jan (init)" <Jan.Jursa@xxxxxxx>
To: <ascoders@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 10:34 AM
Subject: [ascoders] AW: Re: [OT]
> Danke ;-)
> Dachte mir schon sowas. Wäre interessant mal zu lesen wo dat herrührt.
> Ich finde generell solche synthetischen sprachkonstruktionen sehr
> interessant. Ich sage nur "foo" . sieht man auch ständig.
>
> http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/f/foo.html
>
> grüsse,
> J>N
>
>
>
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