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Re: Snarge, Snafu

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  Re: Snarge,  Snafu HenHanna@NewsGrouper <user4055@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-05-25 17:14 +0000
    Re: Snarge, Snafu Tristan Wibberley <tristan.wibberley+netnews2@alumni.manchester.ac.uk> - 2026-07-22 13:49 +0100
      Re: Snarge, Snafu HenHanna@NewsGrouper <user4055@newsgrouper.org.invalid> - 2026-07-28 18:37 +0000
        Re: Snarge, Snafu tfb <tfb@work.it.out> - 2026-07-28 19:58 +0000
      Re: Snarge, Snafu steve g <Sgonedes1977@gmail.com> - 2026-07-31 23:57 -0400
    Re: Snarge,  Snafu George Neuner <gneuner2@comcast.net> - 2026-07-22 22:04 -0400

#60793 — Re: Snarge, Snafu

    iirc,  Some  Programmers in Japan  have a hard time thinking of
function names and end up naming their functions 
function1, function2, function3, function4,....  (very unhelpful naming)


David Entwistle <qnivq.ragjvfgyr@ogvagrearg.pbz> posted:

> On Sun, 24 May 2026 20:18:22 GMT, HenHanna@NewsGrouper wrote:
> 
> > FUBAR
> 
> Does anyone know the origin of the similar(?) foobar, which finds its way 
> into computer programming literature? Usually as a function name, where 
> the details are unspecified, or separate boolean variables foo and bar.
> 

           FOOBAR  is less common among Python and C++  crowd???

_____________

Yes, the computer science term "foobar" (and its separated forms "foo" and "bar") is widely considered a playful corruption of the World War II-era military acronym FUBAR. [1] 

However, the complete history of how these [metasyntactic variables](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foobar) evolved is actually a mix of military slang, 1930s comic strips, and early hacker culture. [1] 


## The Timeline of "Foobar"

* 1930s (The Cartoon Era): Long before computers, the nonsense word "foo" appeared frequently in the popular comic strip Smokey Stover by Bill Holman. The cartoonist used it on car license plates and in background signs (e.g., "Where there's foo, there's fire"). This popularized "foo" as a generic nonsense word in American English.

* 1940s (The Military Era): During World War II, American soldiers coined the vulgar acronym FUBAR, which stood for "Fucked Up Beyond All Repair" (or "Beyond All Recognition") to describe chaotic or broken situations.

* 1960s (The MIT Hacker Era): The term officially entered computer culture through the Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC) at MIT. The students, who were among the world's first computer hackers, combined the existing nonsense word "foo" with the military slang "FUBAR" to create "foobar". They split it into two separate placeholder names—foo and bar—to represent generic components, variables, or functions. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] 



[1] [https://forum.arduino.cc](https://forum.arduino.cc/t/why-most-of-people-using-foo-a-name-of-variable/75200)
[2] [https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com](https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/221/whats-the-origin-of-foo-and-bar)
[3] [https://swetava.wordpress.com](https://swetava.wordpress.com/2013/10/31/the-origin-of-foo-in-computer-programming/)
[4] [https://medium.com](https://medium.com/@sohail_saifii/i-found-the-real-reason-every-tech-tutorial-uses-foo-and-bar-44fa9acf4427)
[5] [https://www.facebook.com](https://www.facebook.com/groups/cs50/posts/1660341007446271/)
[6] [https://www.reddit.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/computerscience/comments/1snv3a5/why_are_foo_and_bar_the_conventional_dummy/)
[7] [https://medium.com](https://medium.com/@brij2097/foo-bar-and-the-adventures-of-nonsensical-variables-from-military-chaos-to-programming-fun-e07da4d19ddf)
[8] [https://www.munish-mehta.com](https://www.munish-mehta.com/post/who-is-foo-bar-and-baz/)
[9] [https://www.quora.com](https://www.quora.com/Who-invented-the-software-meta-names-foo-and-bar)

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#61229 — Re: Snarge, Snafu

On 25/05/2026 18:14, HenHanna@NewsGrouper wrote:
> * 1960s (The MIT Hacker Era): The term officially entered computer culture

There's an office for clique slang?

Is that a part of the ministry of fun?

-- 
Tristan Wibberley

The message body is Copyright (C) 2026 Tristan Wibberley except
citations and quotations noted. All Rights Reserved except that you may,
of course, cite it academically giving credit to me, distribute it
verbatim as part of a usenet system or its archives, and use it to
promote my greatness and general superiority without misrepresentation
of my opinions other than my opinion of my greatness and general
superiority which you _may_ misrepresent. You definitely MAY NOT train
any production AI system with it but you may train experimental AI that
will only be used for evaluation of the AI methods it implements.

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#61231 — Re: Snarge, Snafu

Tristan Wibberley <tristan.wibberley+netnews2@alumni.manchester.ac.uk> posted:

> On 25/05/2026 18:14, HenHanna@NewsGrouper wrote:
> > * 1960s (The MIT Hacker Era): The term officially entered computer culture
> 
> There's an office for clique slang?
> 
> Is that a part of the ministry of fun?
> 


>>> 1960s (The MIT Hacker Era): The term officially entered computer culture

This makes sense because  the Hackers of both coasts (and in between)  maintained an official Jargon file.


This is good  quiz question: -- which is earlier?  The Jargon file, or Usenet?



--
Tristan Wibberley

The message body is Copyright (C) 2026 Tristan Wibberley except
citations and quotations noted. All Rights Reserved except that you may,
of course, cite it academically giving credit to me, distribute it
verbatim as part of a usenet system or its archives, and use it to
promote my greatness and general superiority without misrepresentation
of my opinions other than my opinion of my greatness and general
superiority which you may misrepresent. You definitely MAY NOT train
any production AI system with it but you may train experimental AI that
will only be used for evaluation of the AI methods it implements.


   ---------- nice bit about  2 kinds of  AI's --- Good luck with that !!!

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#61232 — Re: Snarge, Snafu

HenHanna@NewsGrouper <user4055@newsgrouper.org.invalid> wrote:

> This is good  quiz question: -- which is earlier?  The Jargon file, or Usenet?
> 

Jargon file.


-- 
tfeb.org/computer/

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#61257 — Re: Snarge, Snafu

Tristan Wibberley <tristan.wibberley+netnews2@alumni.manchester.ac.uk>
writes:

> On 25/05/2026 18:14, HenHanna@NewsGrouper wrote:
>> * 1960s (The MIT Hacker Era): The term officially entered computer culture
>
> There's an office for clique slang?
>
> Is that a part of the ministry of fun?

I think this is an acronym of life. SNAF: Situation Normal All Fucked
Up; FUBAR: Fucked up Beyond Recognition.


Roger Wilco my friend!

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#61230

On Mon, 25 May 2026 17:14:29 GMT, HenHanna@NewsGrouper
<user4055@newsgrouper.org.invalid> wrote:


>    iirc,  Some  Programmers in Japan  have a hard time thinking of
>function names and end up naming their functions 
>function1, function2, function3, function4,....  (very unhelpful naming)

Sinclair:  Ready?

Delenn  :  Why do your people always ask if someone is "ready" 
           right before you're going to do something massively
           unwise?

Sinclair:  Tradition.

   -- Babylon 5 s3e16 "War Without End"

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