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The product and its advertising tag line still exist:<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.homedepot.com/p/Black-Flag-Roach-Motel-Insect-Glue-Traps-2-Count-HG-11020-1/204237338">https://www.homedepot.com/p/Black-Flag-Roach-Motel-Insect-Glue-Traps-2-Count-HG-11020-1/204237338</a><br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://images.thdstatic.com/productImages/e8dd1acb-7a49-40ce-8ae2-c582c8bda9a2/svn/brown-black-flag-insect-traps-hg-11020-1-64_1000.jpg">https://images.thdstatic.com/productImages/e8dd1acb-7a49-40ce-8ae2-c582c8bda9a2/svn/brown-black-flag-insect-traps-hg-11020-1-64_1000.jpg</a><br>
<br>
Note the red rectangle-with-rounded-corners under the large yellow
word 'Motel' on the front of the box.<br>
<br>
- Aron<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/13/24 16:27, Rob Pike wrote:<br>
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cite="mid:CAKzdPgyha9ytOskS2wtP1U_ie=xLXFDZ+-oXgaR_8-RONm7odA@mail.gmail.com">
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<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">To
answer your actual question, it is of course a riff on a TV ad
for a cockroach trap in the 1980s. The sentiment of the quote,
as I saw it (it's possible I was the one who added it to the
fortunes file after ken saw the SCCS burble at the top of some
file from USG and laughed), was primarily a reaction to the
taint it added to the previously annotation-free top of the
file. It was also a response to the march of corporate code
management stepping into the research world, or perhaps the
hacker world. It's a philosophical thing, a feeling, not an
argument.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">It
all seems so quaint now.</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br>
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<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">-rob</div>
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br>
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<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Dec 14, 2024 at
8:22 AM Rob Pike <<a href="mailto:robpike@gmail.com"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">robpike@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
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style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">According to the Unix
room fortunes file, the actual quote is</div>
<div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><br>
</div>
SCCS: the source-code motel -- your code checks in but it
never checks out.
<div>Ken Thompson</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Dec 14, 2024 at
3:52 AM Marc Rochkind <<a
href="mailto:mrochkind@gmail.com" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">mrochkind@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
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<div>IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering has asked
me to write a retrospective on the influence of SCCS
over the last 50 years, as my SCCS paper was published
in 1975. They consider it one of the most influential
papers from TSE's first decade.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>There's a funny quote from Ken Thompson that
circulates from time-to-time:</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>"SCCS, the source motel! Programs check in and
never check out!"</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>But nobody seems to know what it means exactly. As
part of my research, I asked Ken what the quote meant,
sunce I wanted to include it. He explained that it
refers to SCCS storing binary data in its repository
file, preventing UNIX text tools from operating on the
file.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Of course, this is only one of
SCCS's many weaknesses. If you have anything funny
about any of the others, post it here. I already have
all the boring usual stuff (e.g., long-term locks,
file-oriented, no merging).</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Marc Rochkind</div>
<div><a href="http://mrochkind.com" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">mrochkind.com</a></div>
<div><br>
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