OK... What is ... fu?

Pardon my ignorance, but exactly what does _fu mean WRT Ruby plugins,
gems and such?

I have run across this suffix a number of times in Ruby and Rails,
always in connection with some add-on or extension. In the original
context that I encountered ‘_fu’ I inferred that it probably stood for
file upload. However, its widespread use in other contexts evidently
disproves this interpretation. So, does it have a meaning? Does it
derive from the foo in foobar? Does it stand for functional update? Or,
is it an obscure cultural reference to Ruby’s Japanese origins?

On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 9:49 AM, James B. [email protected]
wrote:

Pardon my ignorance, but exactly what does _fu mean WRT Ruby plugins,
gems and such?

From “kung fu.” It’s a joke.


Have Fun,
Steve E. ([email protected])
ESCAPE POD - The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine
http://www.escapepod.org

James B. wrote:

“I have some mad kung-fu skills!”

“Oh, yeah! I have some killer ruby-fu skills!”

Does that help? :slight_smile:

-Ben

On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 6:49 AM, James B. [email protected]
wrote:

Pardon my ignorance, but exactly what does _fu mean WRT Ruby plugins,
gems and such?

Kung fu.

///ark

On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 8:49 AM, James B. [email protected]
wrote:

Pardon my ignorance, but exactly what does _fu mean WRT Ruby plugins,
gems and such?

I have run across this suffix a number of times in Ruby and Rails,
always in connection with some add-on or extension. In the original
context that I encountered ‘_fu’ I inferred that it probably stood for
file upload. However, its widespread use in other contexts evidently
disproves this interpretation. So, does it have a meaning? Does it
derive from the foo in foobar? Does it stand for functional update? Or,
is it an obscure cultural reference to Ruby’s Japanese origins?

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200601/25/eng20060125_238295.html

Think Kung-Fu

It’s not an abbreviation, it’s a suffix that’s supposed to imply a
certain
level of kick-assery

http://catb.org/jargon/html/F/suffix-fu.html

On 30/01/2009, at 9:49 AM, James B. wrote:

is it an obscure cultural reference to Ruby’s Japanese origins?
I figure it means “skill”, and originates from “kung-fu”. So
attachment_fu would be implying “strong attachment skills”. Also, I’ve
heard people say things like “My fu is better than yours.”

At least, that’s my interpretation…

On 30 Jan 2009, at 14:49, James B. wrote:

is it an obscure cultural reference to Ruby’s Japanese origins?
Think ‘Kung Fu’ and you’re getting there. It’s a bit like The Force.
Or what Robert M. Pirsig calls ‘gumption’.

This “Fu” you refer to is actually different than “Fu” as in “Kung-Fu”.
The
fu as in kung-fu by itself, means husband. In Ancient Chinese, it also
means
wise person, such as confucius(Kong Fu Zi).

Mark W. wrote:

On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 6:49 AM, James B. [email protected]
wrote:

Pardon my ignorance, but exactly what does _fu mean WRT Ruby plugins,
gems and such?

Kung fu.

Ah… Thanks. I understand the reference now. My own martial arts
training leans more to FN than FU so I did not make the connection.

Speaking as the author of a “-fu” project, I’ll say that I named
acts_as_fu that way because it aids the creation of ActiveRecord
extensions, which very commonly have names starting with “acts_as” or
ending with “fu”. This sort of meta-extension of that workflow means
that you can look at it in two ways: It lets you write projects that
act as “fu”, or it increases your “acts_as”-fu. It’s also just
obnoxious. :slight_smile:

Pat

On Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 10:06 AM, David C.
[email protected]wrote:

is it an obscure cultural reference to Ruby’s Japanese origins?

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200601/25/eng20060125_238295.html

And of course according to the last meaning of Fu in that article*, the
technical meaning of Fu is

Fu is having the ability to run Windows applications on Linux or OS
X.

  • “Fu is having wine”


Rick DeNatale

Blog: http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/RickDeNatale

And of course, when spelled out, F-U, has a whole different meaning…

And of course the pinnacle of geekdom is to be known as a ‘poodle’, or
one
who is skilled in being skilled; a fu-fu.Damn’, I appear to be posting
drunk
again …

2009/1/30 Rick DeNatale [email protected]

On Sat, Jan 31, 2009 at 7:38 AM, Mark W. [email protected] wrote:

On Sat, Jan 31, 2009 at 5:13 AM, Jonathan L. [email protected]
wrote:

And of course, when spelled out, F-U, has a whole different meaning…

We just had a presentation by the developers of a Mongrel replacement called
Fuzed.

Which, if you remember “Rails is a Ghetto,” Zed did NOT like.

Pat

On Sat, Jan 31, 2009 at 5:13 AM, Jonathan L.
[email protected]wrote:

And of course, when spelled out, F-U, has a whole different meaning…

We just had a presentation by the developers of a Mongrel replacement
called
Fuzed.

///ark