foo

[0x4B47]

Hi group,

I have seen this word 'foo' crop up in programming examples many a times. Can someone/anyone please tell me what 'foo' means. I know its a dummy name for example purposes but it must have some sort of a significant meaning as the whole programming world seems to be using it!!!

Thanks
K.

 

[Cagliostro]

I think you could take a look at the english dictionary. If there you do not find anything about it, then it makes no sence at all.

foo in samples means use anything you want there.

Ion Filipski

ICQ: 95034075
AIM: IonFilipski
filipski@excite.com

 

[Salem]

http://wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/foldoc.cgi?foo

--

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

 

[chipperMDW]

It's probably not gonna be in an English dictionary.


Short, commonly accepted, probably not entirely correct answer:

"Foo" and "Bar" are the two most common words used as dummy variables. They came from phonetically ripping apart the acronym F.U.B.A.R., which was first used in World War I, and stands for F***ed Up Beyond All Recognition. Programmers have a strange sense of humor (according to the outside world), so bam, we use foo now.


Long, maybe more correct answer:

http://info.astrian.net/jargon/terms/f/foo.html