- From: Philip TAYLOR [PC87S/O-XP] <P.Taylor@Rhul.Ac.Uk>
- Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 12:17:03 +0000
- To: "G. Hagedorn" <G.Hagedorn@BBA.DE>
- CC: www-validator@w3.org
Gregor Hagedorn wrote: > > In the help for the validator > (http://validator.w3.org/docs/errors.html) two words are used which I > tried to look up in my dictionary and still do not understand the > help file (I am not a native speaker). I think they are probably > abbreviation for something. > > What is foo and bar? Can you add a definition of these to the help > file? They have no real meaning, but are frequently used in computer parlance as shorthand for metanotions which would otherwise have to be explained. So, for example, if I cite a URL as http://www.w3c.org/foo.html I am not referring to a real file "foo.html" but rather to any HTML file whose URL starts with "http://www.w3c.org/" and whose explicit file type is .html (as opposed to, say, ".htm or ".asp"). There is another abbreviation which you may encounter which has a similar sound to "foo bar", but this is spelled "fubar" and means "messed up beyond all recognition". You will appreciate that "messed" does not start with the leading "f" of "fubar", and you should therefore substitute a rather more coarse word starting with "f" to get the actual meaning. Similar is "snafu" : "system normal, all messed up". Philip Taylor, RHBNC
Received on Thursday, 13 March 2003 07:17:15 UTC