I just noticed silkmuse's query about FUBAR from a few weeks ago.

The 'etymology' given was what I recall being told years ago.

Some of you may not be aware that it's very common (or in any case, used to be very common) among programmers to use the "meta-variables" foo and bar as placeholders for the general instance of a thing. There's a humorous anecdote relating to this at http://www.hotspankingchicks.com/home.html.

Continuing the programming related theme, I'll add that a slightly teasing name my programming buddies used to call me was "kluge" (my initials are klg) which is a term used to describe a fix to a program or a way of connecting completing a project or a way of connecting two things that are pretty much not-connectable. The term is used in different ways. Some people use it to describe a rube goldberg type construction - think duct tape and chicken wire. Others use it to describe a particularly elegant hack. The correct pronunciation, so far as I can tell, is "klooj," although I've seen it written as "kludge" and rhymed with "judge." I've always liked to believe the term came from the german for "clever," though some sources say it's a English slang for a toilet.


k

I compliment you on your nickname! I'm not a professional programmer by any means. When I do write code, people have a devil of a time understanding it precisely because I tend to "rube-goldberg" it. I often come up with complicated solutions to problems (not just software ones), then someone comes along and cleans it up, makes it more "elegant." I get ribbed for my rube goldbergs, but my feeling is they would not know how to streamline it if they hadn't been shown the path in the first place. So keep on creatively solving problems! You're providing a (sometimes thankless) service. And to heck with its "elegance."

Cheers,
Bryan

You are only wretched and unworthy if you choose to be.

"Others use it to describe a particularly elegant hack"

I have heard kluge used as just the opposite, a "klugy" solution is sloppy and awkward.

Programming has many wonderful words and phrases in its jargon. I have always gotten a kick out of "rain dance," meaning a seemingly pointless manuever that has fixative properties to some problem, such as turning off the lamp and unplugging the telephone to make the hard drive become unfrozen.

My mother became a computer progammer when I was about nine years old. I remember back then when a computer crashed or locked up they used the term "bomb," as in "the program just bombed." I remember being delighted with the figurative language, since bomb suggested a catastrophic failure.

Anybody else know any good programming gems?

Well, best I can do on programming "bombs" is remembering my high school days and being the quickest and most accurate at keypunching! Oh, yes, and having to learn COBOL, because that was the language that I would "need to succeed" as my teacher told me!

I wrote a COBOL program once - a very long time ago. It was not required in any classes I took, but I was fascinated by different languages and wanted to learn what I could, so I made an attempt to write small programs in any of a number of languages - apl, lisp, prolog, snobol, algol. Eventually, I ended up taking a class in lisp and did my final project for ai in it, but the others I've completely forgotten (and glad to have done so).

Cobol is possibly the most irritating language I've ever encountered. One sample was enough and I've never had a remote interest in trying another. My wife did quite a bit of cobol work at a bank once I think. But even that changed to C later (much better choice). I think people tend to learn things and think "ah, okay, things have been decided. this is how it will be." This might have been a useful paradigm 500 years ago. (I'm just as bad, though. I remember once about 20 years ago I decided I would *not* learn another frigging editor and so I stuck with teco and for several years steadfastly refused to even attempt using full-screen editors. Edit like a *man*, by god, with a character oriented editor!)

(I will say that doing windows programming without a gui builder is even more irritating than cobol, but most people use gui builders, I think.)

I like some of the jargon of computers, but not all. I particularly dislike terms that sound like cool-speak, or shibboleths of the in-crowd (like infobahn).

Ah, here's a phrase that I suspect came from computers that's pretty handy "having cycles to spare" as in "I could really use John's help on my new project, but I don't think he has any cycles to spare."



k

my feeling is they would not know how to streamline it if they hadn't been shown the path in the first place.

Oh yes indeedy! Snuggles right there with the old newspaper saying (you remember those? Inked print on paper with informative articles about many things?)

As the saying goes : "It is easier to re-write than to write." So you are absolutely right that what you have written provided a base for your compatriots to come along and re-write it!

Or as the other old saying has it :
"Nobody likes to write. Everybody likes to have written!"

So you are a writer they are just "have writtens." HA!

I am back today after having a lot of 404 problems ... so I take this opportunity to say WELCOME to all of you I am just meeting. Glad to have you aBoard. And soooo nice to now have names of computer literate people ... those strange things will keep happening ....I have a little list....

Whistling nonchalantly the High Priestess meander off ...