What is the history of the use of "foo" and "bar" in source code examples?

Re:What is the history of the use of "foo" and "bar" in sour... by smcin on Saturday October 05, 2024 @08:53PM (#41753938)

That's a non-sequitur. There are plenty of other words that start with 'fu-'. It's also a loanword from Chinese.

And even if not, I haven't heard anyone describe the coinage 'fupa' as offensive.

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Re:What is the history of the use of "foo" and "bar" in sour... by smcin on Saturday October 05, 2024 @11:49PM (#41754611)

To the downvoters: I said I don't find merit in the suggestion that using 'fu' (or 'foo' as a function name) would be considered to constitute profanity. I simply learned 'foo, 'bar' and 'baz' as silly-sounding function names. I didn't make any connection from 'foo' in the CS context to 'fubar' in US military slang till decade later.

(Neglecting that there weren't many women in CS in the 1960s. I don't even see that the word-fragment would have been considered offensive in civilian context, esp. to non-US speakers of English)

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