[TUHS] 70th anniversary of (official) programming errors

Steffen Nurpmeso steffen at sdaoden.eu
Thu Jun 17 07:57:13 AEST 2021


Bakul Shah wrote in
 <C964FEBE-BBE3-4A87-9F2F-E5C277053D85 at iitbombay.org>:
 |> On Jun 15, 2021, at 8:48 PM, Rob Pike <robpike at gmail.com> wrote:
 |> There are citations from Edison in the 19th century using the word, \
 |> and a quote somewhere by Maurice Wilkes about the stairwell moment \
 |> when he realized much of the rest of his life would be spent finding \
 |> programming errors.
 |> 
 |> That moth was not the first bug, nor the first "bug", it was the \
 |> first recorded "actual bug".
 |> 
 |> -rob

 |https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-institute/ieee-history/did-you-know-edison\
 |-coined-the-term-bug

Interesting, thanks!  1947, then.
As you know well the BSD people dropped their calendar instead of
fixing it.

 |Like Edison, she (Grace Hopper) was recalling the word’s older origins \
 |in the Welsh bwg, the Scottish bogill or bogle, the German bögge, and \

(Only to clarify that „bögge“ is not a German word to the best of my
knowledge.  I was looking, as it sounded so »northern«, there is
»Bodden« for example (a small bay with a very small aperture to
the sea), but no?)

 |the Middle English bugge: the hobgoblins of pre-modern life, resurrected \
 |in the 19th century as, to paraphrase philosopher Gilbert Ryle, ghosts \
 |in the machine.

That not me.  If me, then Schopenhauer.  I also do not like the
Brainfuck language, for example.  You know, if you have to go
somewhere ...  In some Bhuddhistic monasteries, for example, monks
sit cross-legged in front of walls for hours each day.  If you
really want, that will help, if you have learned the lesson.
Working in a kitchen garden is also advisable, you can reap.

 |Electrical circuits can have "bad connections" so I do wonder if Edison \
 |coined this word based on "ghost like" faults that magically appear \
 |and disappear!

I seem to recall now that the bug story was clarified in the past
already?  Now it is for me anyway, thank you all for that.  I was
looking at BSD calendar mail and had a go.

--steffen
|
|Der Kragenbaer,                The moon bear,
|der holt sich munter           he cheerfully and one by one
|einen nach dem anderen runter  wa.ks himself off
|(By Robert Gernhardt)


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