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

[John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org>]

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On Tue, Jun 15, 2021 at 6:25 PM Steffen Nurpmeso <steffen@sdaoden.eu> wrote:


> As not being hard-to-the-core i may have missed it, but also in
> 1951, in March, the wonderful Grace Hopper "conceives the first
> compiler, called A-O and later released as Math-Matic.  Hopper is
> also credited with coining the term 'bug' following an incident
> involving a moth and a Mark II.
>

Yes, but wrongly.  The label next to the moth is "First actual case of bug
being found", and the word "actual" shows that the slang term already
existed then.  Brief unexplained faults on telephony (and before that
telegraphy) lines were "bugs on the line" back in the 19C.  Vibroplex
telegraph keys, first sold in 1905, had a picture of a beetle on the top of
the key, and were notorious for creating bugs when inexperienced operators
used them.  (Vibroplex is still in business, still selling its
continuous-operation telegraph keys, which ditt as long as you hold the
paddle to the right.)



John Cowan          http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan        cowan@ccil.org
BALIN FUNDINUL          UZBAD KHAZADDUMU
BALIN SON OF FUNDIN     LORD OF KHAZAD-DUM

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