From:	"John M. Aldrich" <fighteer AT cs DOT com>
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	Re: what's "foo"?
Date:	Fri, 07 Nov 1997 07:37:44 +0000
Organization:	Two pounds of chaos and a pinch of salt
Lines:	26
Message-ID:	<3462C548.1E3E@cs.com>
References:	<01bceabf$55b66080$150867d1 AT default>
Reply-To:	fighteer AT cs DOT com
NNTP-Posting-Host:	ppp203.cs.com
Mime-Version:	1.0
To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
DJ-Gateway:	from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp

test wrote:
> 
> I've seen "foo" poping up in lot of djgpp and at&t unix documentations. Why
> is this obsesion with this word? I wonder if this is somekind of insider
> jargon?

"foo", like "bar" and sometimes "baz", is simply a placeholder.  It
implies that whatever is named "foo" can be replaced by whatever is
appropriate in a specific circumstance.  For example:

   To compile a program, type "gcc -o foo.exe foo.c".

In this case, 'foo' would be replaced with whatever your program's name
is.

This little bit of jargon is standard throughout the computer trade,
although I understand that different languages use different terms.  I'm
quite sure that a quick web search for "jargon" would turn up any of a
dozen net dictionaries; I don't have any URLs handy at the moment.

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