From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: grog@lemis.com (Greg 'groggy' Lehey) Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2017 10:41:17 +1100 Subject: [TUHS] Origin of "bug" (was: Grace Hopper) In-Reply-To: References: <201712091803.vB9I3AYQ006833@freefriends.org> Message-ID: <20171209234117.GG78437@eureka.lemis.com> On Sunday, 10 December 2017 at 10:17:54 +1100, Dave Horsfall wrote: > On Sat, 9 Dec 2017, arnold at skeeve.com wrote: > >>> She coined the term "debugging" when she extracted a moth from a set of >>> relay contacts from a computer (the Harvard Mk I) and wrote "computer >>> debugged" in the log, taping the deceased Lepidoptera in there as well. >> >> See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debugging#Origin_of_the_term which >> indicates that "bug" and "debugging" had been around as technical terms >> long before that incident. > > I need to investigate that further (I'd hate to spread misinformation, > which is why I enjoy being corrected, esp. in public). I was going to pipe up here, but I wasn't sure if it would be interesting. The Oxford English Dictionary has a first reference to in this sense in 1875: 5. orig. U.S. a. A defect or fault in a machine (esp. an electrical or electronic one), or in a process, etc. 1875 Operator 15 Aug. 5/1 The biggest ‘bug’ yet has been discovered in the U.S. Hotel Electric Annunciator. 1889 Pall Mall Gaz. 11 Mar. 1/1 Mr. Edison, I was informed, had been up the two previous nights discovering ‘a bug’ in his phonograph—an expression for solving a difficulty, and implying that some imaginary insect has secreted itself inside and is causing all the trouble. Grace Hopper's bug doesn't get a mention. Greg -- Sent from my desktop computer. Finger grog at lemis.com for PGP public key. See complete headers for address and phone numbers. This message is digitally signed. If your Microsoft mail program reports problems, please read http://lemis.com/broken-MUA -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 163 bytes Desc: not available URL: