[Tutor] what is foo bar?

[Tesla Coil]

26 Mar 2000, Deirdre Saoirse replied to Walter Hanagriff:
>> the words foo and bar are used so much in examples, why?
>
> Tradition. Just like using x for a variable name or i for a counter.
>
>> was that it was poor style, does foo and bar, or just foo or
>> bar actually do something or just useful as example names
>> of variables, modules and such?
>
> fubar = "f*cked up beyond all recognition" probably had
> something to do with splitting it into foo + bar. :)

Goes back to the early days of the Tech Model Railroad Club
at MIT (http://web.mit.edu/tmrc/www/).  "Foo" seems to have
come into use first, possibly picked up from frequent appearance
in the Smokey Stover comic strip.  The acronym FUBAR made
"bar" a natural compliment.   Other longtime MIT favorites see
heavy use in Guy L. Steele's _Common Lisp: The Language_.