RE: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Origin of SPAM (Yes! I am a google GOD)

[Jonathan King <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Wed, 1 Oct 2003, Ross, Matthew wrote:

> > Right.  The nonsense variable names of yore were "foo", "bar", and
> > "baz".  People used them in pseudo-code all the time.  "spam" was
> > similar, except that it seems to be used (even in the mid-80s!)  
> > more as a subroutine name. 
> 
> Are "foo" and "bar" descended from "fubar"? I had always thought
> so, but I've had several geeks whose overinflated egos dwarfed
> even mine tell me I was wrong.

This is another one of those Great Mysteries.  There is no question 
that the existence of the expression "fubar" probably helped "foo" 
and "bar" maintain their place in the lexicon of programming, but 
whether they derived from it...that's tricky.  Unfortunately, too, 
they're both old enough that they predate email, much less Usenet, 
so doing the research on them is a lot more work.  I think I know 
that "Foo" anyway occurs in the Lisp 1.5 Manual from the mid-60s.

jking


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