this memo is kind of funny in its informational tone. i had always just assumed foo and bar came from fubar once i became familiar with the usage.<p>on another note, i have always disliked the usage of these terms. they stand only for internal lingo and serve no useful purpose. in every case, there are better names that can be used, and i feel foo and bar do nothing but distract me from the example and use case at hand. also, as a student in my first assembly programming course, the professor just started using foo and bar indiscriminately and frequently. i was thoroughly confused at least the entire duration of that lecture and maybe the next until i realized these were seemingly arbitrary words he had picked and not, as i had originally thought, meaningful words or even instructions. i'll take a and b any day.