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260:.' Our first obligation is to keep the foo counters turning." One book describing the MIT train room describes two buttons by the door labeled "foo" and "bar". These were general-purpose buttons and were often repurposed for whatever fun idea the MIT hackers had at the time, hence the adoption of foo and bar as general-purpose variable names. An entry in the
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Further, it is possible to search for an effective address; e.g., if an instruction such as "add 1 foo" were used, specifying indirect addressing thru location "foo", and location "foo" contained the address of location "foobar", then an effective word search for "foobar" would find location "foo"
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switches located at numerous places around the room that could be thrown if something undesirable was about to occur, such as a train moving at full power towards an obstruction. Another feature of the system was a digital clock on the dispatch board. When someone hit a scram switch, the clock
285:(1977 Crowther and Woods version). The variable FOOBAR was used to contain the player's progress in saying the magic phrase "Fee Fie Foe Foo", a phrase from an historical quatrain in the classic English fairy tale
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stopped and the display was replaced with the word "FOO"; at TMRC the scram switches are, therefore, called "Foo switches". Because of this, an entry in the 1959
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Mieke
Matthyssen, "Chinese happiness: A proverbial approach to popular philosophies of life", p. 190, ch. 9 in, Gerda Wielander, Derek Hird (eds),
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Multiflush: stop-all-trains-button. Next best thing to the red door button. Also called FOO. Displays "FOO" on the clock when used.
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developer documentation recommends against using them as example project names because they are unclear and can cause confusion.
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Ensure that the name is applicable to the user's environment. Don't use unclear terms like foo, bar, and baz.
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organization (WS-I) as a means to stifle competition, including e-mails in which top executives including
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185:. Holman states that he used the word due to having seen it on the bottom of a jade Chinese figurine in
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The first known use of the terms in print in a programming context appears in a 1965 edition of MIT's
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whose exact identity is unimportant and serve only to demonstrate a concept. The style guide for
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189:, purportedly signifying "good luck". If true, this is presumably related to the Chinese word
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went something like this: "FOO: The first syllable of the misquoted sacred chant phrase '
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was a
Nantucket dialect word for a bungled job, apparently derived from the French
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Nathaniel
Philbrick, "In the Heart of the Sea", p. 22, ch. 1, Harper Press, 2005
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or computer-related documentation. They have been used to name entities such as
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473:"Example domains and names | Google developer documentation style guide"
428:"The on-line hacker Jargon File, version 4.4.8. metasyntactic variable"
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trial, evidence was presented that
Microsoft had tried to use the
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and the location containing the "add" instruction as well.
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MCS-86 Assembler
Operating Instructions For ISIS-II Users
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319:, an international network of user-generated conferences.
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in a programming context is generally credited to the
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Google developer documentation style guide word list
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with its earliest documented use in the 1930s comic
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395:, similar placeholder text used outside programming
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757:– FTP Operation Over Big Address Records (FOOBAR)
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340:referred to the WS-I using the codename "foo".
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297:in their programming documentation in 1978.
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652:"Abridged Dictionary of the TMRC Language"
247:. In the complex model system, there were
34:"Foo" redirects here. For other uses, see
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262:Abridged Dictionary of the TMRC Language
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713:"Microsoft ploy to block Sun exposed"
619:Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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541:Eastlake, D; Manros, C; Raymond, E.
404:Category:Variable (computer science)
594:, Hong Kong University Press, 2018
547:The Internet Engineering Task Force
275:was used as a variable name in the
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745:The Jargon File entry on "foobar"
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689:. 1978. Manual Order No. 9800641A
148:Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition)
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325:United States v. Microsoft Corp.
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16:Placeholder names in programming
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592:Chinese Discourses on Happiness
254:Dictionary of the TMRC Language
171:, the word FOO originated as a
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654:. Tech Model Railroad Club of
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1:
776:Computer programming folklore
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330:Web Services Interoperability
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711:Mike Ricciuti (2002-07-04).
637:"Computer Dictionary Online"
567:"The History of Bill Holman"
201:", sometimes transliterated
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365:Computer programming portal
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153:Note however that the word
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45:Foobar being used to show
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94:, and others are used as
234:Tech Model Railroad Club
19:Not to be confused with
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187:San Francisco Chinatown
96:metasyntactic variables
287:Jack and the Beanstalk
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781:Computing terminology
614:Tech Engineering News
501:"What does foo mean?"
477:Google for Developers
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225:Tech Engineering News
126:History and etymology
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621:. 1965. p. 63.
543:"Etymology of "Foo""
462:- Etymology of "Foo"
142:-era military slang
130:It is possible that
104:computer programming
36:Foo (disambiguation)
346:is an audio player.
301:Examples in culture
293:also used the term
258:foo mane padme hum
211:), which can mean
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771:Placeholder names
687:Intel Corporation
311:hacker convention
100:placeholder names
29:FUBAR (TV series)
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660:the original
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573:. 2007-06-13
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479:. 2023-06-23
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47:Transclusion
433:Jargon File
393:Lorem ipsum
378:Foo fighter
322:During the
245: 1960
183:Bill Holman
765:Categories
747:, catb.org
722:2019-08-17
693:2020-02-29
666:2013-03-12
600:9888455729
577:2019-08-17
552:2016-04-17
510:2019-08-17
483:2023-06-26
439:2024-05-30
410:References
344:foobar2000
334:Bill Gates
236:(TMRC) of
52:The terms
25:foobar2000
213:happiness
112:functions
108:variables
351:See also
307:Foo Camp
279:code of
264:states:
217:blessing
205:, as in
159:faux pas
136:allusion
116:commands
426:(ed.).
317:BarCamp
277:Fortran
208:foo dog
138:to the
753:
598:
527:
458:
273:Foobar
155:foopaw
132:foobar
120:Google
114:, and
54:foobar
399:xyzzy
291:Intel
249:scram
240:from
144:FUBAR
27:, or
21:FUBAR
755:1639
717:CNET
596:ISBN
525:ISBN
460:3092
336:and
98:and
751:RFC
656:MIT
456:RFC
295:foo
238:MIT
230:foo
215:or
203:foo
181:by
169:RFC
150:.
102:in
88:bar
84:foo
82:),
75:ɑːr
767::
715:.
569:.
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503:.
486:.
475:.
448:^
430:.
289:.
242:c.
219:.
195:("
192:fu
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602:.
580:.
555:.
531:.
513:.
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313:.
198:福
146:(
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63:ˈ
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31:.
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