Waldo JaquithFeb 28, 2023
Please, please, stop using "foo" and "bar” in code documentation. Give us real examples that mean something. Not "if (foo > bar)," but “if (height > limit)." Not “foo++” but “counter++”. Give us a logical hook to hang our hat on, not nonsense words.
Show threadHawluchaFeb 28, 2023

@waldoj My personal theory is that writing "foo", "bar", and whatever the fuck else tells other computer touchers that you too are part of some special nerd club, like you are in the know.

I wish to not guess what the fuck "foo" and "bar" are supposed to represent. I wish to immediately understand what the example code is supposed to do!

Show threadChuck O'Rourke:verified:Feb 28, 2023

@Hawlucha @waldoj @chucker I suspect you know “fubar” is military speak for “fucked up beyond all recognition”.

It’s close cousin is “snafu” “situation normal all fucked up”

The urge to mansplain overwhelmed me!

Show threadSören
@Chuck_ORourke @Hawlucha @waldoj https://mastodon.social/@waldoj/109942329137961361
Feb 28, 2023 at 4:40pmWeb
Show threadChuck O'Rourke:verified:Feb 28, 2023
@chucker @Hawlucha @waldoj But it's so much fun!
Show threadMaxFeb 28, 2023
@Chuck_ORourke @chucker @Hawlucha @waldoj It’s also considered an apocryphal origin by some. The directest technical origin appears to be use as nonsense words in MIT’s Dungeon (commercialized as Infocom’s Zork 1/2/3). Opinions remain split to this day if it was just convergent evolution of “silly sounding baby talk” rather than directly inspired by the military usage. “Silly in-joke words from once classic videogame” seems more likely programming vars origin to me than the “military origin”.
Show threadMaxFeb 28, 2023

@Chuck_ORourke @chucker @Hawlucha @waldoj Not that the origin matters a great deal, it only distracts from the point that they are primarily nonsense words.

(Further evidence is that in programming vars it is often the nonsense foursome foo, bar, baz, quux or more. baz and quux have no “military origin”, no backronyms. Are about as pure nonsense from Dungeon/Zork as possible to find.)

(If the military origin were more “true” you’d expect foo/bar more in error examples than general examples.)

Show threadChuck O'Rourke:verified:Feb 28, 2023
@max @chucker @Hawlucha @waldoj That's interesting, maybe foo bar evolved from fubar subconsciously. Minds are weird.
Show threadMaxFeb 28, 2023
@Chuck_ORourke @chucker @Hawlucha @waldoj Yep, minds and the languages they build are weird and fascinating. Other potentially apocryphal data points I read about suggest that the “real” “military origin” was a World War 1 English “mondegreen” for the German word “furchtbar” (“terrible”) that became popular in some WW1-era US comic strips as “foobar”, leaving “foobar” even more likely the “original” spelling and “fubar” even more a WW2-era backronym.
Show threadMaxFeb 28, 2023
@Chuck_ORourke @chucker @Hawlucha @waldoj (Which also better fits our understanding of the history of the term “foo fighters” also predating “fubar”.)