It has plenty to do with Stata.
I quite often write little programs or do files with names
like foo.ado or foo.do. The implication to myself
is that I know I will not want to keep those
files in the long run, so I just can delete them
if I am cleaning up a directory without checking inside.
Of course, I have only myself to blame if foo.ado
turned into something useful; and there are many
ways of doing something similar.
Again, as Statalist should just be plain text,
and we shouldn't use italic,
such variables can help in communication. The implication
is that if I write "foo", you should substitute "wage"
or "survival" or whatever it is in your problem.
Except that in Stata contexts "mpg" serves the same
purpose! "mpg" stands for Mr President Gould.
Nick
[email protected]
Michael S. Hanson
> On Aug 24, 2006, at 12:46 PM, b. water wrote:
>
> > without wanting to sound irreverent, i wonder whether
> someone could
> > tell me the meaning or full expression of the abbreviation
> 'foo' so
> > often used to illustrate Stata advice/help. i have always
> wanted to
> > know this but now, my curiosity got the better of me. i
> simply have
> > to ask.
>
> Google is your friend (tm):
> <http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/F/foo.html>
> <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=foo>
>
>
> > apologies if it has nothing to do with either statistics or Stata.
>
> It doesn't. ;)
*
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