Origin of the word "bug" meaning "computer error"?
Afterburner
Power II" game from Activision, I ran across an interesting passage
which I will now paraphrase (since I don't have the book with me and
can't quote it verbatim):
"The word 'bug' as a reference to software or computer errors
comes from the days when computers were huge monstrosities filled with
thousands of vacuum tubes. In the course of investigating a series of
bizarre errors, Grace Hopper discovered that the cause of these errors
was a moth that had fried itself on some of the circuitry."
This smells UL-ish to me. Can anyone confirm or deny?
AB
jack judge
helped develop the foundations of systems analysis at Blackbrun Uni (UK) in
the early 60's.
His story was that the word "bug" came about from a visiting American
professor who found months of work stored on punch card rendered useless by
a nest of creepy crawlies.
JJ
Afterburner <abu...@rcn.com> wrote in message
news:uk6cbtogit3b5ecqd...@4ax.com...
Brian Yeoh
http://www.urbanlegends.com/afu.faq/listing.cgi?selection=compute
Halfway down the page lists that :
T. In 1947 a moth was found in a relay of the Harvard Mark II machine, and
taped into the logbook as the "first actual case of bug being found".
T. The log book used to be in building 1200 "K-lab" of the Naval Surface
Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division. Now at the Smithsonian MoAH.
F. Grace Hopper coined the term "bug" as a result of this event.
T. Grace Hopper was a programmer for the Mark II and often told the moth
story.
T. "Bug" was used to mean a design defect as far back as Edison's time.
Brian "have you been helped?" Yeoh
--
The Royal Navy demonstrates its knowledge of life's _priorities_.
"[...] grant him a pardon for anything save mutiny, sodomy and damaging
the paintwork."
-- Jack Aubrey; Patrick O'Brian; _The Ionian Mission_
Lara Hopkins
> "The word 'bug' as a reference to software or computer errors
> comes from the days when computers were huge monstrosities filled with
> thousands of vacuum tubes. In the course of investigating a series of
> bizarre errors, Grace Hopper discovered that the cause of these errors
> was a moth that had fried itself on some of the circuitry."
>
> This smells UL-ish to me. Can anyone confirm or deny?
Sure can. It's even in the venerable FAQ:
===
T.In 1947 a moth was found in a relay of the Harvard Mark II machine,
and taped into the logbook as the "first actual case of bug being
found".
T. The log book used to be in building 1200 "K-lab" of the Naval Surface
Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division. Now at the Smithsonian MoAH.
F. Grace Hopper coined the term "bug" as a result of this event.
T. Grace Hopper was a programmer for the Mark II and often told the moth
story.
T. "Bug" was used to mean a design defect as far back as Edison's time.
===
And here's a picture, Bongo[1]:
http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Bug.GIF
Lara "genuine bug, faux entomology" Hopkins
[1] ObTWIAVBP: oh, never mind.
--
The unpleasantness in afu is not obligatory, merely recreational.
-Ian Munro
Afterburner
>Sure can. It's even in the venerable FAQ:
And I even visited Snopes and urbanlegends.com and did a
search on both "software bug" and "computer bug". I hang my head in
shame.
Bugger.
AB
Boron Elgar
wrote:
Seems on the money.
http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/Files/hopper-wit.html
Boron
RM Mentock
> > This smells UL-ish to me. Can anyone confirm or deny?
>
> Seems on the money.
>
> http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/tap/Files/hopper-wit.html
Whose money? ./>kf$a oops, smiley-generator is inoperable
http://www.urbanlegends.com/afu.faq/listing.cgi?selection=compute
--
RM Mentock
panta rhei -- Heraclitis
http://mentock.home.mindspring.com/
Ray Depew
: Also Sprach wa...@iinet.net.au (Lara Hopkins):
No big deal. Everybody trips from time to time.
: Bugger.
Ah, another Orson Scott Card fan.
: AB
R
R
Randy Poe
wrote:
> While reading the official strategy guide for the "Call to
Sigh.
Yes, it's true, it's a famous and true story. Adm. Hopper is often
credited with originating the term "bug" in connection with computers,
due to this incident. However, the relevant log entry, "first actual
case of a bug being found" suggests that the term was already in use
by then.
Here's one link to the incident, with a picture of the moth.
http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/tek1/first_computer_bug.htm
This page, despite quoting the above log entry, nevertheless carries
the title "first computer bug". The page also says that the story was
a favorite of Hopper's, but she was always careful to point out that
she personally was not there at the time.
So yes, there was an actual moth in 1945, Grace Hopper was part of the
team but not the author of the famous log entry, and neither she nor
the operators originated the term.
- Randy
Randy Poe
wrote:
>http://www.urbanlegends.com/afu.faq/listing.cgi?selection=compute
>
>Halfway down the page lists that :
>
>T. In 1947 a moth was found in a relay of the Harvard Mark II machine, and
>taped into the logbook as the "first actual case of bug being found".
>
>T. The log book used to be in building 1200 "K-lab" of the Naval Surface
>Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division. Now at the Smithsonian MoAH.
>
>F. Grace Hopper coined the term "bug" as a result of this event.
>
>T. Grace Hopper was a programmer for the Mark II and often told the moth
>story.
>
>T. "Bug" was used to mean a design defect as far back as Edison's time.
>
Hm.
I did an unsuccessful search for "Grace Hopper" on both Snopes and
Urbanlegends.com before making my own response to this post. You must
know a secret handshake I don't.
- Randy
Phil Gustafson
>
>Hm.
>
>I did an unsuccessful search for "Grace Hopper" on both Snopes and
>Urbanlegends.com before making my own response to this post. You must
>know a secret handshake I don't.
>
I also found out that "urbanlegens.com" is a sleazy commercial site
apparently nursing on our tyops. I suppose that's fame of a sort.
Ph.
--
))
(( Phil Gustafson Urban Legends FAQ: http://www.urbanlegends.com
C|~~| Java FAQ: http://www.afu.com
`--' <ph...@panix.com>
Brian Yeoh
Yes, it's called jumping to the FAQ. For some reason, the search on
Urbanlegends.com only searches the contents of the site but not the FAQ.
This is confusing and annoying, but since there exists a work-around,
insufficiently annoying to request a change.
Brian "lazy" Yeoh
Sean Willard
> On Mon, 19 Mar 2001, Randy Poe wrote:
>
> > Hm.
> > I did an unsuccessful search for "Grace Hopper" on both Snopes and
> > Urbanlegends.com before making my own response to this post. You must
> > know a secret handshake I don't.
>
> Yes, it's called jumping to the FAQ. For some reason, the search on
> Urbanlegends.com only searches the contents of the site but not the FAQ.
> This is confusing and annoying, but since there exists a work-around,
> insufficiently annoying to request a change.
What are you guys talking about? I started at the main page, scrolled
down to the bottom, clicked on "Search This Archive", entered "grace
hopper", hit <return>, and got three hits, two from the FAQ and one for
<http://www.urbanlegends.com/afu/minutes/afu_dc.html>. Some secret
handshake.
Sean
Chris Clarke
<ran...@visionplace.com> wrote:
> Hm.
>
> I did an unsuccessful search for "Grace Hopper" on both Snopes and
> Urbanlegends.com before making my own response to this post. You must
> know a secret handshake I don't.
>
TINSH.
--
"Jesus would drop-kick your moronic fucking ass into next goddamned week,
is what Jesus would do." - Jan Bednarczuk
Charles Wm. Dimmick
> T. "Bug" was used to mean a design defect as far back as Edison's time.
Reminds me of a joke, dating back to the days when men all
carried those big pocket watches. Somewhat inebriated man
after a night on the town finds that his watch has stopped.
Neither shaking it nor winding it helps, so he decides to
open the back and look inside.
Inside, among the gears, is a small dead beetle.
"Aw geeze, no wonder it won't work", he says.
"The engineer died".
Charles Wm. Dimmick
John Caldwell
<jack....@capgemini.co.uk> writes
>A tutor of mine, (his first name was reg, second might've been Hill ?)
>helped develop the foundations of systems analysis at Blackbrun Uni (UK) in
>the early 60's.
>His story was that the word "bug" came about from a visiting American
>professor who found months of work stored on punch card rendered useless by
>a nest of creepy crawlies.
>
*Blackburn* university? In the UK?
--
John "in the early 60s?" Caldwell
Brian Gordon
Half and half. The word "bug" for an engineering problem is much older than
computers. Grace, however, DID tape a moth that had been beaten to death by
a computer's relay into the logbook with a comment about how this was a REAL
computer bug. The logbook, open to that page, is (or at least was) on display
in the Smithsonian.
--
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| Brian Gordon -->bri...@panix.com<-- bgo...@ventro.com |
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Donna Richoux
Others have commented on what is true and not about the story. Since you
ask about the origin of the word itself, I think it's nice to see
earlier citations. The Random House Historical Dictionary of American
Slang has:
QUOTE
3. a defect or imperfection, especially in a new plan or design. Now
colloquial or Standard English.
{Citations}
1878 T. Edison, in Josephson "Edison" 198:
"Bugs" -- as such little faults and difficulties are called -- show
themselves and months of anxious watching, study and labor are requisite
before commercial success is reached.
1889 in OEDS:
Mr. Edison, I was informed, had been up the two previous nights
discovering "a bug" in his phonograph -- an expression for solving a
difficulty.
1909 in Ware "Pass. English" 53:
The phraseology of Edison, to judge from his day-book records, is
synthetic, strongly descriptive, and quaint... A "bug" is a difficulty
which appears insurmountable to the staff. To the master it is "an ugly
insect that lives on the lazy and can and must be killed."
[Remaining citations snipped.]
END QUOTE
The AUE FAQ suggests the word can be traced to the Middle English
"bugge" which meant evil spirit or demon (related to "bogey").
--
Donna "ain't no bugs on us" Richoux
Randy Poe
Whatever search I did, all I got was an AFU newsgroup message
reporting that somebody at an AFU East had tried unsuccessfully to see
the "Grace Hopper bug" at a local museum.
I'm not going to worry about it. Perhaps it was "Grace Hopper bug" I
searched for. Now I know a couple of quirks about the search engine,
I'll know better how to use it (or bypass it) next time.
- Randy
R H Draney
>
> > On Mon, 19 Mar 2001, Randy Poe wrote:
> >
> > > I did an unsuccessful search for "Grace Hopper" on both Snopes and
> > > Urbanlegends.com before making my own response to this post. You must
> > > know a secret handshake I don't.
>
> down to the bottom, clicked on "Search This Archive", entered "grace
> hopper", hit <return>, and got three hits, two from the FAQ and one for
> <http://www.urbanlegends.com/afu/minutes/afu_dc.html>. Some secret
> handshake.
Doesn't work on Snopes (entering the search terms "grace hopper" and
allowing soundalikes there gets you the story about smashing wedding
cake into the faces of the couple)...over at TAFKAC, entering the two
names finds the FAQ entries, but surrounding them with quotes fails
(does that make it case-sensitive or is it actually *looking* for the
quotes?)...it occurred to me to try it both ways because a cow orker of
mine idolizes the Admiral and always insists on using her full name,
with the "Murray" interposed, so I thought the full story might be filed
that way....
R H "snatch the moth from my hand, Grace Hopper" Draney
JoAnne Schmitz
>So yes, there was an actual moth in 1945, Grace Hopper was part of the
>team but not the author of the famous log entry, and neither she nor
>the operators originated the term.
Nor did they claim to.
It wouldn't make any sense to exclaim, "look, here's the BUG hahahahaha that is
causing the problem chortle chortle chortle" if bug didn't already mean "program
error."
JoAnne "lolling" Schmitz
Phil Edwards
wrote:
>Doesn't work on Snopes (entering the search terms "grace hopper" and
>allowing soundalikes there gets you the story about smashing wedding
>cake into the faces of the couple)
Grease heaper? Crush Hoover? Craze he-bear?
Phil "I [hurt] shindies" Edwards
--
Phil Edwards http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/amroth/
"This is just my opinion, and I look back and realise it does little
to answer your question." - Daniel Ucko waxes reflective
Lara Hopkins
I confess to using a Google Advanced search on "grace hopper bug". It
seems to work more consistently than the urbanlegends.com search engine.
Lara
Charles A Lieberman
http://groups.google.com/groups?as_umsgid=<9966is$5f1$1...@panix3.panix.com>
>Half and half. The word "bug" for an engineering problem is much older than
>computers. Grace, however, DID tape a moth that had been beaten to death by
>a computer's relay into the logbook with a comment about how this was a REAL
>computer bug.
Interestingly, or more likely not, Tom Standage in _The Victorian
Internet_ says that "bug" for an engineering problem comes from
telegraph operators, and originally referred to, wait for it, the
insects and creepy-crawlies that infested rural telegraph offices.
Slaverich
>comes from the days when computers were huge monstrosities filled with
>thousands of vacuum tubes. In the course of investigating a series of
>bizarre errors, Grace Hopper discovered that the cause of these errors
>was a moth that had fried itself on some of the circuitry."
>
> This smells UL-ish to me. Can anyone confirm or deny?
>
> AB
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Yes i can confirm this, that is where the term "BUG" origginated.
Chris Clarke
<slav...@aol.com> wrote:
That settles it then.
Chris "whew" Clarke
Jerry Bauer
Chris Clarke <ccl...@faultline.org> wrote:
>In article <20010321124121...@ng-ch1.aol.com>, Slaverich
><slav...@aol.com> wrote:
>
>> >"The word 'bug' as a reference to software or computer errors
>> >comes from the days when computers were huge monstrosities filled with
>> >thousands of vacuum tubes. In the course of investigating a series of
>> >bizarre errors, Grace Hopper discovered that the cause of these errors
>> >was a moth that had fried itself on some of the circuitry."
>> >
>> > This smells UL-ish to me. Can anyone confirm or deny?
>> >
>> > AB
>>
>> Yes i can confirm this, that is where the term "BUG" origginated.
>
>That settles it then.
>
Actually, I think you should consult an entomological dictionary.
Jerry "If it really bugs you." Bauer
Ian Munro
> >"The word 'bug' as a reference to software or computer errors
> >comes from the days when computers were huge monstrosities filled with
> >thousands of vacuum tubes. In the course of investigating a series of
> >bizarre errors, Grace Hopper discovered that the cause of these errors
> >was a moth that had fried itself on some of the circuitry."
> >
> > This smells UL-ish to me. Can anyone confirm or deny?
> >
THNAK U 4 YUOR CONFIRMATION, SLAVERICH!!1!!
Ian "and thnaks for the memories" Munro
--
"Canadians. Why is it always Canadians?"--Barbara Hamel