p.s. I should have looked at more hits before sending that.  Here's the ad (or one of them): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKhGHxO-woc - Aron On 12/13/24 16:37, Aron Insinga wrote: > The product and its advertising tag line still exist: > > https://www.homedepot.com/p/Black-Flag-Roach-Motel-Insect-Glue-Traps-2-Count-HG-11020-1/204237338 > > https://images.thdstatic.com/productImages/e8dd1acb-7a49-40ce-8ae2-c582c8bda9a2/svn/brown-black-flag-insect-traps-hg-11020-1-64_1000.jpg > > Note the red rectangle-with-rounded-corners under the large yellow > word 'Motel' on the front of the box. > > - Aron > > > On 12/13/24 16:27, Rob Pike wrote: >> 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. >> >> It all seems so quaint now. >> >> -rob >> >> >> On Sat, Dec 14, 2024 at 8:22 AM Rob Pike wrote: >> >> According to the Unix room fortunes file, the actual quote is >> >> SCCS: the source-code motel -- your code checks in but it never >> checks out. >> Ken Thompson >> >> On Sat, Dec 14, 2024 at 3:52 AM Marc Rochkind >> wrote: >> >> 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. >> >> There's a funny quote from Ken Thompson that circulates from >> time-to-time: >> >> "SCCS, the source motel! Programs check in and never check out!" >> >> 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. >> >> 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). >> >> Marc Rochkind >> mrochkind.com >> >> >> >> >