Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 14:40:40 -0400 
From: "Jonathan R. Ferro" <jf41+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: The third variable.

mjg51721@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Michael James Gebis) writes:
>Does anyone have any other creative variable names?

============ THIS IS THE JARGON FILE, VERSION 2.9.6, 16 AUG 1991 ============
(Sorry, don't have a more recent one online right now.)

bar: /bar/ n. 1. The second metasyntactic variable, after {foo}
   and before {baz}. ...
barf: /barf/ ... {barf}
   is sometimes also used as a metasyntactic variable, like {foo} or
   {bar}.
baz: /baz/ [Stanford: corruption of {bar}] n. 1. The third
   metasyntactic variable, after {foo} and {bar} and before
   {quux} (or, occasionally, `qux'; or local idiosyncracies like
   `rag', `zowie', etc.). ...
Commonwealth Hackish:: n. Hacker jargon as spoken outside
   the U.S., esp. in the British Commonwealth. ... Preferred
   metasyntactic variables include `eek', `ook',
   `frodo', and `bilbo'; `wibble', `wobble', and
   in emergencies `wubble'; `banana', `wombat',
   `frog', {fish}, and so on and on (see {foo}, sense 4). ...
fish: [Adelaide University, Australia] n. 1. Another metasyntactic
   variable.  See {foo}. ...
flarp: /flarp/ [Rutgers University] n. Yet another metasyntactic
   variable (see {foo}).  Among those who use it, it is associated
   with a legend that any program not containing the word `flarp'
   somewhere will not work.  The legend is discreetly silent on the
   reliability of programs which *do* contain the magic word.
foo: /foo/ 1. interj. Term of disgust.  2. Used very generally
   as a sample name for absolutely anything, esp. programs and files
   (esp. scratch files).  3. First on the standard list of
   metasyntactic variables used in syntax examples.  See also
   {bar}, {baz}, {qux}, {quux}, {corge}, {grault},
   {garply}, {waldo}, {fred}, {plugh}, {xyzzy},
   {thud}.

   {foo} is the {canonical} example of a `metasyntactic
   variable' --- 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.  To avoid confusion, hackers never use
   `foo' or other words like it as permanent names for anything.  In
   filenames, a common convention is that any filename beginning
   `foo' is a scratch file that may be deleted at any time.

   The etymology of hackish `foo' is obscure.  When used in
   connection with `bar' it is generally traced to the WWII-era Army
   slang acronym FUBAR (`Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition'), later
   bowdlerized to {foobar}.  (See also {FUBAR}).

   However, the use of the word `foo' itself has more complicated
   antecedents, including a long history in comic strips and cartoons.
   The old "Smokey Stover" comic strips by Bill Holman often
   included the word `FOO', in particular on license plates of cars;
   allegedly, `FOO' and `BAR' also occurred in Walt Kelly's
   "Pogo" strips.  In the 1938 cartoon "Daffy Doc", a very
   early version of Daffy Duck holds up a sign saying "SILENCE IS
   FOO!"; oddly, this seems to refer to some approving or positive
   affirmative use of foo.  It is even possible that hacker usage
   actually springs from `FOO, Lampoons and Parody', the title of
   a comic book first issued in September 1958; the byline read
   `C. Crumb' but this may well have been a sort-of pseudonym for
   noted weird-comix artist Robert Crumb.  The title FOO was featured
   in large letters on the front cover.

   An old-time member reports that in the 1959 `Dictionary of the
   TMRC Language', compiled at {TMRC} there was an entry that went
   something like this:

        FOO: The first syllable of the sacred chant phrase "FOO MANE PADME
        HUM."  Our first obligation is to keep the foo counters turning.

   For more about the legendary foo counters, see {TMRC}.  Almost
   the entire AI staff was involved with TMRC, so it is not clear
   which group introduced the other to the word FOO.

   Very probably, hackish `foo' had no single origin and derives
   through all these channels from Yiddish `feh' and/or English
   `fooey'.
foobar: n. Another common metasyntactic variable; see {foo}.
   Hackers do *not* generally use this to mean {FUBAR} in
   either the slang or jargon sense.
fred: n. 1. The personal name most frequently used as a
   metasyntactic variable (see {foo}).  Allegedly popular because
   it's easy for a non-touch-typist to type on a standard QWERTY
   keyboard. ...
gorp: /gorp/ [CMU: perhaps from the canonical hiker's food, Good
   Old Raisins and Peanuts] Another metasyntactic variable, like
   {foo} and {bar}.
mumble: ... 3. Yet another metasyntactic variable, like {foo}.
quux: /kwuhks/ Mythically, from the Latin semi-deponent verb
   quuxo, quuxare, quuxandum iri; noun form variously `quux' (plural
   `quuces', anglicized to `quuxes') and `quuxu' (genitive
   plural is `quuxuum', for four u-letters out of seven in all,
   using up all the `u' letters in Scrabble).]  1. Originally, a
   metasyntactic variable like {foo} and {foobar}.  Invented by
   Guy Steele for precisely this purpose when he was young and na"ive
   and not yet interacting with the real computing community.  Many
   people invent such words; this one seems simply to have been lucky
   enough to have spread a little.  In an eloquent display of poetic
   justice, it has returned to the originator in the form of a
   nickname. ...
qux: /kwuhks/ The fourth of the standard metasyntactic
   variables, after {baz} and before the quu(u...)x series.
   See {foo}, {bar}, {baz}, {quux}.  This appears to be a
   recent mutation from {quux}, and  many versions of the
   standard series just run {foo}, {bar}, {baz}, {quux},
   ....

Hope this helps!

--
Jon Ferro		MIT Transportation Modelling Research Center (TMRC)
jf41+@andrew.cmu.edu	"We can hack it!"
SGNTR VRS VRSN 3.1B: Strppd nd cmprssd fr qckr trnsmssn! nfct yrs tdy!
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.unix.misc