humor in source code
Larry__Weiss
What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
As an example here's one convention I've started using recently when
I need to leave a note to future developers (probably myself) warning
about a needed improvement that I can't get to right now; in C:
/* 8-( this sorting routine needs to be recoded to a faster method ) */
This allows me to search for the emoticon "8-(" to find the warts.
jmfb...@aol.com
Larry__Weiss <l...@airmail.net> wrote:
>
>What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
I don't think anything can top "Here be dragons".
>
>As an example here's one convention I've started using recently when
>I need to leave a note to future developers (probably myself) warning
>about a needed improvement that I can't get to right now; in C:
> /* 8-( this sorting routine needs to be recoded to a faster method ) */
>This allows me to search for the emoticon "8-(" to find the warts.
When I was doing RUNOFF "code", I'd put
HUIZENGA
whenever I was going to leave the TTY for a second. If somebody
ever used the file for document production, my bookmark wouldn't
end up in the proofs :-).
I usually did a similar thing for code on the rare occasions
when I typed my code in on-line without having it written
on paper.
/BAH
Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.
Geoffrey G. Rochat
Well, there's always the hack of using the label OFF as the target for a
PDP-10's Jump and Restore (JRST) instruction...
G. Wolfe Woodbury
>> What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
>
> Well, there's always the hack of using the label OFF as the target for a
> PDP-10's Jump and Restore (JRST) instruction...
>
Well, PDP-11 RT-11 Source code had extensive quoting from
Gilbert&Sullivan to mark relevant sections, like:
Behold the Lord High Executioner
on the process dispatch code.
--
Gregory G. "Wolfe" Woodbury `-_-' Owner/Admin: wolves.durham.nc.us
ggw at wolves.durham.nc.us U
"The Line Eater is a boojum snark." Hug your wolf.
Eric Sosman
A very good programmer (whose code taught me a lot
of my craft) had the useful habit of putting execution
traces in his programs. At interesting moments he'd
insert a call to a trace routine, which would just stuff
the return address in a circular buffer and return -- so
if the program crashed, the circular buffer contained
a history of the last couple hundred interesting events
prior to the crash. His trace call always looked like
BAL R14,TRACE REMEMBER THIS MOMENT, MY SON
Another of my cow orkers once ran across this piece
of in-code humor, presumably unintentional:
#define HASHSIZE 57 /* a smallish prime */
Lon Stowell
> In article <3F169EBD...@airmail.net>,
> Larry__Weiss <l...@airmail.net> wrote:
>>
>>What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
>
> I don't think anything can top "Here be dragons".
I don't even remember which Pyramid OS version, but one of
the better rants I can recall was in the signal handling
code of a rather complex bit. Somewhat along the lines of
"Well, here we are again, with what we have come to know
and love about Unix. We have gotten a signal from some
other process and we haven't a clue who it came from or
whether it was really intended for us.... "
And then it went off the deep end.
Pete Fenelon
>
> What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
>
/etc/termcap on any Berkeley box. Contains more amusing rants about
broken old terminals than I care to remember.
Funniest of all is diffing it against AIX /etc/termcap. All the libel
has been carefully airbrushed out!
pete
--
pe...@fenelon.com "there's no room for enigmas in built-up areas" HMHB
Tim Shoppa
That doesn't count, it's a comment. Real programmers express their
humor in non-comment code, e.g. an ex-Brit I knew started all his
FORTRAN programs with
PROGRAMME
Tim.
John Ahlstrom
/* FIX ME SOMEDAY */
which is black humor at least
The virtual memory mgt code started with
/*
Yesterday I had a scare
I used some code that wasn't there
It wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish that it would stay.
*/
JKA
--
The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple
as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something
so paradoxical that no one will believe it.
Russell
Larry__Weiss
> Larry__Weiss <l...@airmail.net> wrote...
> > What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
> >
> > As an example here's one convention I've started using recently when
> > I need to leave a note to future developers (probably myself) warning
> > about a needed improvement that I can't get to right now; in C:
> > /* 8-( this sorting routine needs to be recoded to a faster method ) */
> > This allows me to search for the emoticon "8-(" to find the warts.
>
> That doesn't count, it's a comment. Real programmers express their
> humor in non-comment code, e.g. an ex-Brit I knew started all his
> FORTRAN programs with
>
> PROGRAMME
>
Yes, extra points for humor in source outside comments!
(I suddenly feel like Drew Carey doing "Who's Line Is It Anyways"?)...
Elliott Roper
<l...@airmail.net> wrote:
> >
> > That doesn't count, it's a comment. Real programmers express their
> > humor in non-comment code, e.g. an ex-Brit I knew started all his
> > FORTRAN programs with
> >
> > PROGRAMME
> >
>
> Yes, extra points for humor in source outside comments!
I have to confess, with some embarrassment, that as a very new
programmer on a PDP-8, I went to some trouble to create a list handling
routine with an address that held the *P*osition *O*f the *L*ast
*E*ntry
simply so I could write....
no. I can't bring myself to say it....
Bill Leary
In case (switch) statements where all the possible cases are covered, I'll
usually and the "else" or "otherwise" or whatever as something like this:
default: /* We can't ever get here. But since we will, someday... */
fprintf(stderr, "Crash #24\n");
exit(-1)
}
(the above a C example, of course).
I use different numbers for every one of those, so when it happens I can
find which one caused it.
And, of course, there's the classic "You are not expected to understand
this" example:
http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/odd.html
- Bill
David Powell
"G. Wolfe Woodbury" <ggw_@no_spam.wolves.durham.nc.us> in
alt.folklore.computers wrote:
>Geoffrey G. Rochat <777ge...@777pkworks777.777com777> shaped electrons to say:
>>> What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
>>
>> Well, there's always the hack of using the label OFF as the target for a
>> PDP-10's Jump and Restore (JRST) instruction...
>>
>
>Well, PDP-11 RT-11 Source code had extensive quoting from
>Gilbert&Sullivan to mark relevant sections, like:
>
> Behold the Lord High Executioner
>
>on the process dispatch code.
I don't remember that one, but presumably, about three lines later,
when it did the despatch, a PDP-8 programmer would have had to use two
JMPs, both needing the "defer" major state to perform that
particularly vital function. :) What was the code? I've only
retained the uncommented RT11 sources. (Weep.) Gilbert's "sources" are
out of copyright, and freely available on the net.
I remember " Faster than a speeding bullet." in the VM: driver, but
RT11 comments were more "Politically Correct" than in earlier
software. Unlike *that* comment in OS/8 Build, when the "$" prompt was
issued.
Regards,
David P.
Steve O'Hara-Smith
Eric Sosman <Eric....@sun.com> wrote:
ES> Another of my cow orkers once ran across this piece
ES> of in-code humor, presumably unintentional:
ES>
ES> #define HASHSIZE 57 /* a smallish prime */
Silly sod missed the leading 0 off an octal constant.
--
C:>WIN | Directable Mirrors
The computer obeys and wins. |A Better Way To Focus The Sun
You lose and Bill collects. | licenses available - see:
| http://www.sohara.org/
Tim Shoppa
And even more if it's executable, not just a declaration!
Tim.
Charles Richmond
require that everyone put a comment and their initials with all
changes. Then just search for the luser's initials...and you have
found a problem.
I have mentioned before about a FORTRAN comment in some code
that was acquired from a competitor:
C
C The following code was very hard for me to understand,
C and it's going to be very hard for you to understand
C too, because I am not going to tell you how it works.
C
I also am fond of the following comment:
/****************************************************************
/-------------\
/ \
/ \
/ \
| XXXX XXXX |
| XXXX XXXX |
| XXX XXX |
\ X |
--\ XXX /--
| | XXX | |
| | | |
| I I I I I I I |
| I I I I I I |
\ /
-- --
\-------/
XXX XXX
XXXXX XXXXX
XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX
XXXXX XXXXX
XXXXXXX
XXXXX XXXXX
XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX
XXXXX XXXXX
XXX XXX
**************
* BEWARE!! *
**************
All ye who enter here:
Most of the code in this module
is twisted beyond belief!
Tread carefully.
If you think you understand it,
You Don't,
So Look Again.
****************************************************************/
--
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Charles and Francis Richmond richmond at plano dot net |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
Charles Richmond
"If 87 were prime, it would be a counter-example to your
conjecture."
Heinz W. Wiggeshoff
"Elliott Roper" <ell...@yrl.co.uk> wrote in message
news:180720030008318423%ell...@yrl.co.uk...
> In article <3F170F71...@airmail.net>, Larry__Weiss
> <l...@airmail.net> wrote:
>
>
> > >
> > > That doesn't count, it's a comment. Real programmers express
their
> > Yes, extra points for humor in source outside comments!
>
> I have to confess, with some embarrassment, that as a very new
> programmer on a PDP-8, I went to some trouble to create a list
handling
> routine with an address that held the *P*osition *O*f the *L*ast
> *E*ntry
>
> simply so I could write....
>
> no. I can't bring myself to say it....
Quite often when doing a search in IBM assembler or
PL/I, I'll have a label PUREJOY for success.
Back in the late seventies, I used a label
LETS_DO_IT in an APL program. Those were
Gary Gilmour's(?) last words before the firing
squad in Utah.
Q
wrote:
>That doesn't count, it's a comment. Real programmers express their
>humor in non-comment code, e.g. an ex-Brit I knew started all his
>FORTRAN programs with
What about the COBOL goto's? Especially if the compiler didn't require
'to',
Production:
StrawberryFieldsForever.
More Beatles...
etc.
One-Timers:
Hell
F**kYourself
F**kMgt
Near noontime:
Lunch
Depended on my mood, i spose.....
--
Q
Charles Richmond
allows the programmer to write structured code, and translated
the code to FORTRAN IV. MORTRAN allowed for alphabetic labels.
If you had a label :JAIL:, and somewhere you had a GO TO JAIL,
the preprocessor would print the message: GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL,
DO NOT COLLECT $200. At least, that's the way I heard it.
Lawrence Statton N1GAK/XE2
I once worked on a large Z-80 assembly language project, where the
tool-chain, in addition to not supporting partial assembly, linking
object files, and other such niceties - did not support any sort of
local labels. So every single target of a jump had to be unique.
This leads to labels made up at the spur of the moment. One guy used
foods. I used the handles of users of a nearby bulletin board system
I was hanging out on.
Sometimes routines that we thought were going to be buried deep in the
bowels of the system came poking to the surface -- which leads to
things like a major subsystem named "PINK_FLOYD" (because we were
listening to Dark Side of the Moon when we wrote it).
That was also the worst-paying job I've ever had - after the project
was finished, I added up all the unpaid overtime, and realized that I
made (after taxes) about 2 dollars and seventy-eight cents per hour.
Email: echo lawr...@abaluon.abaom | sed s/aba/c/g
Andrew Gabriel
In a lineprinter driver, I recall seeing...
goto jail; // do not pass go, do not collect $200
In a pipe driver I wrote (not for unix, and not in C, but
nearest equivalent)...
broken_pipe(...)
{
/* do some mopping up */
.
.
.
/* now fix things */
call plumber;
}
For some years after that, I would get the occasional call
from someone who just came across it for the first time.
In a proprietry operating system...
/* <Description of some major logic fault in the code> */
/* We must fix this before the first release of DOS. */
The first release of the DOS this comment referred to (a proprietry
OS, nothing to do with MS-DOS) had taken place some 15 years before
I noticed that comment...
--
Andrew Gabriel
Consultant Software Engineer
Anne & Lynn Wheeler
> Sometimes routines that we thought were going to be buried deep in the
> bowels of the system came poking to the surface -- which leads to
> things like a major subsystem named "PINK_FLOYD" (because we were
> listening to Dark Side of the Moon when we wrote it).
ibm convention for module names were three letter component name
followed by three letter module name. VM/370 was DMK, CMS was DMS.
For the resource manager ... recent ref:
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003k.html#8 z VM 4.3
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2003k.html#9 What is timesharing, anyway?
the module in the resource manager that implemented all the dynamic
adaptive, fairshare, nonfairshare, feedback & feedfoward control, etc
was
DMKSTP
after the product that had tv advertisement
The Racer's Edge
--
Anne & Lynn Wheeler | ly...@garlic.com - http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/
Internet trivia, 20th anniv: http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/rfcietff.htm
Larry__Weiss
> What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
>
Here's a cite of a loop coded
DO UNTIL Nixon_Is_In_Again
http://www.broadcast.net/pipermail/broadcast/1997-November/004624.html
Bill Leary
> Here's a cite of a loop coded
>
> DO UNTIL Nixon_Is_In_Again
Ah, you just rang a bell for me...
Repeat
code sequence
Until HellFreezesOver;
{ Damn, got cold around here! }
- Bill
Anne & Lynn Wheeler
> DMKSTP
>
> after the product that had tv advertisement
>
> The Racer's Edge
also related
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/97.html#12 OSes commerical, history
http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2001e.html#51 OT: Ever hear of RFC 1149? A geek silliness taken wing
Bill Leary
>
> DO UNTIL Nixon_Is_In_Again
Ah, you just rang a bell for me...
Walter Bushell
> What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
>
> As an example here's one convention I've started using recently when
> I need to leave a note to future developers (probably myself) warning
> about a needed improvement that I can't get to right now; in C:
> /* 8-( this sorting routine needs to be recoded to a faster method ) */
> This allows me to search for the emoticon "8-(" to find the warts.
I used in Fortran the fourth
Logical Bug
For tracing errors when program was working Bug was set to false.
So
If (bug) Write "debug info here"
--
The last temptation is the highest treason:
To do the right thing for the wrong reason. --T..S. Eliot
Walter
Michael N. LeVine
pr...@panix.com (Walter Bushell) wrote:
> Larry__Weiss <l...@airmail.net> wrote:
>
> > What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
> >
> > As an example here's one convention I've started using recently when
> > I need to leave a note to future developers (probably myself) warning
> > about a needed improvement that I can't get to right now; in C:
> > /* 8-( this sorting routine needs to be recoded to a faster method ) */
> > This allows me to search for the emoticon "8-(" to find the warts.
>
> I used in Fortran the fourth
>
> Logical Bug
>
> For tracing errors when program was working Bug was set to false.
>
> So
>
> If (bug) Write "debug info here"
There was a story I heard (but cannot confirm) about the Burroughs OS source.
The comments were in the form of a pornographic story and after a few sites
that bought the sources conplained -- they had to be rewritten.
Has any one else heard this story and is it fact or legend?
--
Michael LeVine - mle...@redshift.com
"Thirty days hath September, April, June and November.
All the rest have thirty one except for Gypsy Rose Lee
and every one knew what she had" - Mel Blanc
Douglas H. Quebbeman
> What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
Since no one else mentioned it, my favorite was the one from Yourdon's
book on structured (?) programming:
http://theorem.ca/~mvcorks/humour/programming.txt
-dq
Dave Daniels
Larry__Weiss <l...@airmail.net> wrote:
> What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
I came across this in a C program a few years ago:
lonely(heart) {
/*
* This is a lonely function that nobody likes, nobody calls and
* nobody cares for
*/
printf("sigh");
}
I wonder if the programmer was trying to say something?
Dave Daniels
Howard S Shubs
Dave Daniels <dave_d...@argonet.co.uk> wrote:
> I came across this in a C program a few years ago:
>
> lonely(heart) {
> /*
> * This is a lonely function that nobody likes, nobody calls and
> * nobody cares for
> */
> printf("sigh");
> }
>
> I wonder if the programmer was trying to say something?
I expect he was, even if he wasn't aware of it. Would that be
function-less programming?
--
Today, on Paper-view: Pulp Fiction!
Trog Woolley
for f in `<some command>` ; do
in my scripts
--
Trog Woolley | trog at trogwoolley dot com
(A Croweater back residing in Pommie Land with Linux)
Isis Astarte Diana Hecate Demeter Kali Inanna
Charles Richmond
>
> [snip...] [snip...] [snip...]
>
> There was a story I heard (but cannot confirm) about the Burroughs OS source.
> The comments were in the form of a pornographic story and after a few sites
>
Was the pronographic story something about the operator
mounting tapes???
Charles Richmond
programmer was Peter Samson...except the composer mentioned
was J.S.B. (Bach) and of course the death date was different,
but was also in octal. I suspect that Yourdon took this story
and changed details to ward off being sued.
I have *never* cared for Yourdon or his opinions. It suits
me fine...that his credibility is zero since he went overboard
on the Y2K survivalist issue...
John Ahlstrom
risqué (if you really stretch it) procedure names e.g.
forkque, motherforker, ...
JKA
--
The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple
as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something
so paradoxical that no one will believe it.
Russell
Douglas H. Quebbeman
> "Douglas H. Quebbeman" wrote:
> >
> > Larry__Weiss <l...@airmail.net> wrote in article <3F169EBD...@airmail.net>...
> >
> > > What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
> >
> > Since no one else mentioned it, my favorite was the one from Yourdon's
> > book on structured (?) programming:
> >
> > http://theorem.ca/~mvcorks/humour/programming.txt
> >
> A very similar story was mentioned in _Hackers_ and the
> programmer was Peter Samson...except the composer mentioned
> was J.S.B. (Bach) and of course the death date was different,
> but was also in octal. I suspect that Yourdon took this story
> and changed details to ward off being sued.
Perhaps, but the Yourdon story predates the _Hackers_ book and/or
film (I used the textbook in 1978)...
> I have *never* cared for Yourdon or his opinions. It suits
> me fine...that his credibility is zero since he went overboard
> on the Y2K survivalist issue...
Well, I oppose gun control, and on that issue, I count Wayne LaPierre
as an ally, but would likely disagree with him on almost every
other count. I also don't agree with everything Yourdon says, but
he says little I disagree with when it comes to structured programming...
Michael N. LeVine
John Ahlstrom <jahl...@cisco.com> wrote:
> Charles Richmond wrote:
> >
> > "Michael N. LeVine" wrote:
> > >
> > > [snip...] [snip...] [snip...]
> > >
> > > There was a story I heard (but cannot confirm) about the Burroughs OS source.
> > > The comments were in the form of a pornographic story and after a few sites
> > > that bought the sources complained -- they had to be rewritten.
> > >
> > Was the pronographic story something about the operator
> > mounting tapes???
> >
> > --
> > +----------------------------------------------------------------+
> > | Charles and Francis Richmond richmond at plano dot net |
> > +----------------------------------------------------------------+
> I don't remember a story, but there were some
> risqué (if you really stretch it) procedure names e.g.
> forkque, motherforker, ...
>
> JKA
As best as I can recall - it has been quite a while since I heard the story.
There was in the resident monitor a key section of code that most
if not all requests had to go through called the "bed"
and the comments through out the code concerned getting a boy and girl indian
into the "bed".
This story is second hand at best...
Charles Richmond
>
> Charles Richmond wrote:
> >
> > "Michael N. LeVine" wrote:
> > >
> > > [snip...] [snip...] [snip...]
> > >
> > > There was a story I heard (but cannot confirm) about the Burroughs OS source.
> > > The comments were in the form of a pornographic story and after a few sites
> > > that bought the sources complained -- they had to be rewritten.
> > >
> > mounting tapes???
> >
> I don't remember a story, but there were some
> risqué (if you really stretch it) procedure names e.g.
> forkque, motherforker, ...
>
And all them other truckers..."
Charles Richmond
>
> Charles Richmond <rich...@ev1.net> wrote in article <3F186934...@ev1.net>...
> >
> >
> > A very similar story was mentioned in _Hackers_ and the
> > programmer was Peter Samson...except the composer mentioned
> > was J.S.B. (Bach) and of course the death date was different,
> > but was also in octal. I suspect that Yourdon took this story
> > and changed details to ward off being sued.
>
> Perhaps, but the Yourdon story predates the _Hackers_ book and/or
> film (I used the textbook in 1978)...
>
the early 1960's IIRC. The first third of the _Hackers_ book
covered the period at MIT from about 1960 to 1972.
>
> > I have *never* cared for Yourdon or his opinions. It suits
> > me fine...that his credibility is zero since he went overboard
> > on the Y2K survivalist issue...
>
> Well, I oppose gun control, and on that issue, I count Wayne LaPierre
> as an ally, but would likely disagree with him on almost every
> other count. I also don't agree with everything Yourdon says, but
> he says little I disagree with when it comes to structured programming...
>
wants to make structured programming into a "cookbook" sort of
activity. If I wanted a bull and doring profession, I would have
been an accountant... ;-)
William Hamblen
(Lawrence Statton N1GAK/XE2) wrote:
>That was also the worst-paying job I've ever had - after the project
>was finished, I added up all the unpaid overtime, and realized that I
>made (after taxes) about 2 dollars and seventy-eight cents per hour.
Years ago we hired a file clerk who said when she saw her first
paycheck less deductions for income taxes, social security taxes,
health insurance and pension, "Is this all I get?"
Hardly seems worth going to work some days.
Lars Duening
> It seems to me that Yourdon belittles true programming talent...and
> wants to make structured programming into a "cookbook" sort of
> activity. If I wanted a bull and doring profession, I would have
> been an accountant... ;-)
And, as the especially recent years showed, even accounting is a
creative profession!
Gene Wirchenko
>What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
I put these two comments in an invoicing program:
* "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may..."
* Repeating Entries are written to cinw as they are
* encountered...
* ...but Auto-Credit transactions are a consolidation.
[snip]
Sincerely,
Gene Wirchenko
Computerese Irregular Verb Conjugation:
I have preferences.
You have biases.
He/She has prejudices.
ace join_to
> I put these two comments in an invoicing program:
>
> * "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may..."
> * Repeating Entries are written to cinw as they are
> * encountered...
I find error messages with a snippet of Danish (my wife's second
language) attached are very satisfying.
These usually translate to something mundane out of a phrase book.
such as "I wish to visit a bookmaker to have my shoes repaired"
My counsellor told me I must learn to live in the present.
Well I'm halfway there - I can't remember what I did yesterday.
Howard S Shubs
ace join_to wa...@iinet.net.au (Tony Epton) wrote:
> I find error messages with a snippet of Danish (my wife's second
> language) attached are very satisfying.
> These usually translate to something mundane out of a phrase book.
> such as "I wish to visit a bookmaker to have my shoes repaired"
"My hoovercraft is FULL of EELS!"
Charlie Gibbs
(Gene Wirchenko) writes:
>Larry__Weiss <l...@airmail.net> wrote:
>
>>What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program
>>source code?
>
> I put these two comments in an invoicing program:
>
> * "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may..."
> * Repeating Entries are written to cinw as they are
> * encountered...
>
> * ...but Auto-Credit transactions are a consolidation.
* SUBROUTINES (I.E. CLOSE ALL HATCHES BEFORE DIVING)
Whenever I write a routine to calculate the number of days in a
month, the comments are the "Thirty days hath September..." verse
(all neatly lined up with the corresponding code, of course).
--
/~\ cgi...@kltpzyxm.invalid (Charlie Gibbs)
\ / I'm really at ac.dekanfrus if you read it the right way.
X Top-posted messages will probably be ignored. See RFC1855.
/ \ HTML will DEFINITELY be ignored. Join the ASCII ribbon campaign!
Steve O'Hara-Smith
Charles Richmond <rich...@ev1.net> wrote:
CR> It seems to me that Yourdon belittles true programming talent...and
CR> wants to make structured programming into a "cookbook" sort of
CR> activity. If I wanted a bull and doring profession, I would have
CR> been an accountant... ;-)
Yep it's programming by reduction instead of by abstraction. It
splits the problem up into doable chunks with no attempt to be sensible
about it.
--
C:>WIN | Directable Mirrors
The computer obeys and wins. |A Better Way To Focus The Sun
You lose and Bill collects. | licenses available - see:
| http://www.sohara.org/
Charles Richmond
just to cheat people out of millions of dollars. For these
accountants, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. *No*
challenge...
Charles Richmond
>
> In article <3f18e035...@news.ocis.net> ge...@mail.ocis.net
> (Gene Wirchenko) writes:
>
> >Larry__Weiss <l...@airmail.net> wrote:
> >
> >>What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program
> >>source code?
> >
> > I put these two comments in an invoicing program:
> >
> > * "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may..."
> > * Repeating Entries are written to cinw as they are
> > * encountered...
> >
> > * ...but Auto-Credit transactions are a consolidation.
>
> * SUBROUTINES (I.E. CLOSE ALL HATCHES BEFORE DIVING)
>
> Whenever I write a routine to calculate the number of days in a
> month, the comments are the "Thirty days hath September..." verse
> (all neatly lined up with the corresponding code, of course).
>
hands. Start with January on the left knuckle of your left
hand. Then count the months using the knuckles and the spaces
between the knuckles. Every month that falls into a space,
has less than 31 days. When you go from July to August, you
are going from the last knuckle on your left hand to the
first knuckle on your right hand.
Can you get this into a comment???
Megan
>Well, PDP-11 RT-11 Source code had extensive quoting from
>Gilbert&Sullivan to mark relevant sections, like:
> Behold the Lord High Executioner
>on the process dispatch code.
Actually, that comment (actually a full verse of the song) is for
the code which handles program exits, if I remember correctly...
heck, let me consult the source...
from rmon.mac:
;+
; "Behold the lord high executioner!
; A personage of noble rank and title -
; A dignified and potent officer,
; Whose functions are particularly vital."
; - W.S. Gilbert, "The Mikado"
;
; The following entry point is used to abort a running job.
; It switches to System State, sets the abort bit for the user,
; and falls into the abort code.
;-
There are quite a few things in the RT sources... I posted a number
of them someplace a few years ago, maybe I should collect them and
make them available somewhere...
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | email: mbg at world.std.com |
| Member of Technical Staff | megan at savaje.com |
| SavaJe Technologies, Inc. | (s/ at /@/) |
| 100 Apollo Drive | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ |
| Chelmsford, MA 01460 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler |
| (978) 256 6521 (DEC '77-'98) | required." - mbg KB1FCA |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
Megan
>I remember " Faster than a speeding bullet." in the VM: driver, but
>RT11 comments were more "Politically Correct" than in earlier
>software. Unlike *that* comment in OS/8 Build, when the "$" prompt was
>issued.
One of my favorites (other than the verse from The Mikado) is the comment
for the code which moves the KMON (keyboard monitor) and USR (User Service
Routines) up and down in memory as handlers are loaded and unloaded, or
foreground or system jobs are installed or removed.
;+
; "The awful shadow of some unseen power
; Floats, tho' unseen, amongst us"
; - Shelley, "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty"
;-
RFCOMMSYS
>
>
>What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
>
>
Seasoned programmers (as opposed to young upstarts who swear on a stack of
Bibles that THEIR code cannot possibly be malfunctioning) will appreciate this
comment found in a program:
* THIS SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN ...... ..... BUT ......
(followed by code to handle the seemingly impossible).
Our computer operators always got a kick out of this console message I put in a
program when it forced an abend:
THE DDA TRIAL BALANCE IS GOING TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET.
I found this comment in front of code to handle error conditions:
"BUT ... IT WORKED WHEN I TESTED IT"
ace join_to
>"My hoovercraft is FULL of EELS!"
"Drop your panties Sir William, I cannot wait until lunch time, etc"
or from another source
"Alas, the Madonna is not functioning"
(Klieban I think - "Cats", "Whack your porcupine", "Never eat anything
larger than your head" - whatever happened to him ? Almost a precursor
to Larson - but a little bit more surreal)
Gene Wirchenko
[snip]
>* SUBROUTINES (I.E. CLOSE ALL HATCHES BEFORE DIVING)
>
>Whenever I write a routine to calculate the number of days in a
>month, the comments are the "Thirty days hath September..." verse
>(all neatly lined up with the corresponding code, of course).
I did that one, too, in a college COBOL assignment.
ace join_to
>larger than your head" - whatever happened to him ? Almost a precursor
>to Larson - but a little bit more surreal)
Went searching out of curiosity and found him at
Correct quotation is "Alas, the Madonna does not function" and there
is now a rock group of the same name.
jmfb...@aol.com
rfco...@aol.com (RFCOMMSYS) wrote:
>Larry__Weiss l...@airmail.net wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source
code?
>>
>I found this comment in front of code to handle error conditions:
>
>"BUT ... IT WORKED WHEN I TESTED IT"
I like that one.
Mine would tend to be documenting that if the program ends up here,
the system is having more problems than keeping track of user
usage. I would then add that I wouldn't expect file closings to
work but that I'll try anyway.
/BAH
Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.
Leor Zolman
>
>
>What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
>
If I'm really perturbed about having to write a particular small-ish C
program, I'll usually begin it with:
int main(int aaarghc, char *aaarghv)
{
...
I don't think I made this up, but I've been using it so long that the original
source is long forgotten...
-leor
Leor Zolman
>
>In article <3F169EBD...@airmail.net>, l...@airmail.net says...
>>
>>
>>What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
>>
>
>If I'm really perturbed about having to write a particular small-ish C
>program, I'll usually begin it with:
>
> int main(int aaarghc, char *aaarghv)
> {
Aaargh, I meant "char **aaargv". Let's see, that's one bug per two lines of
code (I'm being generous counting the open curly as a line). Perhaps that's
why I'm currently into developing debugging tools ;-)
Mensanator
>From: rfco...@aol.com (RFCOMMSYS)
>Date: 7/19/03 9:22 PM Central Daylight Time
>Message-id: <20030719222252...@mb-m04.aol.com>
You had programmers who tested their code?
The best line I ever heard from a programmer when I asked
"The program crashed immediately upon startup. Didn't you run it after you
compiled it?"
"Why should I run it? I know how it works, I wrote it."
--
Mensanator
2 of Clubs http://members.aol.com/mensanator666/2ofclubs/2ofclubs.htm
Howard S Shubs
wrote:
> There are quite a few things in the RT sources... I posted a number
> of them someplace a few years ago, maybe I should collect them and
> make them available somewhere...
Is the instance of AutoDecrement Deferred addressing mode still in there?
Steve O'Hara-Smith
Charles Richmond <rich...@ev1.net> wrote:
CR> To me, the easiest thing is to use the knuckles of your two
CR> hands.
This is the best of all days in month mnemonics. The "Thirty
days has ..." one to me is about as easy to get right as "The palace
with the chalice, Has the brew that is true" (or was it the other one).
Megan
>In article <bfcrd2$s8j$2...@pcls4.std.com>, Megan <m...@TheWorld.com>
>wrote:
>> There are quite a few things in the RT sources... I posted a number
>> of them someplace a few years ago, maybe I should collect them and
>> make them available somewhere...
>Is the instance of AutoDecrement Deferred addressing mode still in there?
I just did a scan of the monitor sources and found 15 occurances...
Howard S Shubs
wrote:
> I just did a scan of the monitor sources and found 15 occurances...
Yikes! Ed used it a lot, then.
Hank Oredson
"Larry__Weiss" <l...@airmail.net> wrote in message
news:3F169EBD...@airmail.net...
>
> What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
>
> I need to leave a note to future developers (probably myself) warning
> about a needed improvement that I can't get to right now; in C:
> /* 8-( this sorting routine needs to be recoded to a faster method ) */
> This allows me to search for the emoticon "8-(" to find the warts.
Cannot remember where I saw this one:
"Taffy pull (harder than fudging)"
--
... Hank
Hank: http://horedson.home.att.net
W0RLI: http://w0rli.home.att.net
John Varela
<ste...@eircom.net> wrote:
> On Sat, 19 Jul 2003 21:27:03 GMT
> Charles Richmond <rich...@ev1.net> wrote:
>
> CR> To me, the easiest thing is to use the knuckles of your two
> CR> hands.
That one fails for me at August. What am I doing wrong?
> This is the best of all days in month mnemonics. The "Thirty
> days has ..." one to me is about as easy to get right as "The palace
> with the chalice, Has the brew that is true" (or was it the other one).
I dunno, but you'd better get in, get at it, get it over with, and get
out.
--
John "But wait! There's been a change!" Varela
Lon Stowell
> On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 06:12:00 UTC, Steve O'Hara-Smith
> <ste...@eircom.net> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 19 Jul 2003 21:27:03 GMT
>> Charles Richmond <rich...@ev1.net> wrote:
>>
>> CR> To me, the easiest thing is to use the knuckles of your two
>> CR> hands.
>
> That one fails for me at August. What am I doing wrong?
Perhaps you have your pinkies together rather than your
indices fingers?
JFMAMJJ AS...
aeapauu ue...
nbrrynl gp...
n_n_n_n n_n_n_n
Gene Wirchenko
>On Sat, 19 Jul 2003 21:27:03 GMT
>Charles Richmond <rich...@ev1.net> wrote:
>
>CR> To me, the easiest thing is to use the knuckles of your two
>CR> hands.
>
> This is the best of all days in month mnemonics. The "Thirty
>days has ..." one to me is about as easy to get right as "The palace
>with the chalice, Has the brew that is true" (or was it the other one).
I have never heard of this one. Please explain it.
Simon Slavin
and...@cucumber.demon.co.uk (Andrew Gabriel) wrote:
>In a proprietry operating system...
>
> /* <Description of some major logic fault in the code> */
> /* We must fix this before the first release of DOS. */
I'm /still/ doing that. In something which is going to be
released next month I currently have a comment that says
-- should really check that the table is the right width here
I suppose I should put that mug trap in but frankly I doubt
it'll be done for version 1.0.
Richard Steiner
William Hamblen <william...@earthlink.net> spake unto us, saying:
>Hardly seems worth going to work some days.
Be thankful you have work. Many of us don't. :-)
--
-Rich Steiner >>>---> http://www.visi.com/~rsteiner >>>---> Eden Prairie, MN
OS/2 + BeOS + Linux + Win95 + DOS + PC/GEOS = PC Hobbyist Heaven! :-)
Now running in text mode on a PPro/200. Eat my dust, GUI freaks!
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
Richard Steiner
"Michael N. LeVine" <mle...@redshift.com> spake unto us, saying:
>In article <3F185C65...@cisco.com>,
> John Ahlstrom <jahl...@cisco.com> wrote:
>
>> Charles Richmond wrote:
>> >
>> > "Michael N. LeVine" wrote:
>> > >
>> > > [snip...] [snip...] [snip...]
>> > >
>> > > There was a story I heard (but cannot confirm) about the Burroughs OS source.
>> > > The comments were in the form of a pornographic story and after a few sites
>> > > that bought the sources complained -- they had to be rewritten.
>> > >
>> > Was the pronographic story something about the operator
>> > mounting tapes???
>> >
>> > --
>> > +----------------------------------------------------------------+
>> > | Charles and Francis Richmond richmond at plano dot net |
>> > +----------------------------------------------------------------+
>> I don't remember a story, but there were some
>> risqué (if you really stretch it) procedure names e.g.
>> forkque, motherforker, ...
>>
>> JKA
>
>As best as I can recall - it has been quite a while since I heard the story.
>There was in the resident monitor a key section of code that most
>if not all requests had to go through called the "bed"
>and the comments through out the code concerned getting a boy and girl indian
>into the "bed".
>
>This story is second hand at best...
I've heard stories about comments in the Burroughs MCP before, some of
them telling of routines called JUDGE and SHERRIF [sic], and a whole
storyline that ran through parts of the process management code.
Perhaps some of the c.s.u partitipants can enlighten the a.f.c folks?
I remember a couple of flight ops programs in WorldFlight (originally
written for UNIMATIC at UAL) that had comments written with a cheesy
German accent, and I found that to be rather funny.
Charles Richmond
>
> [snip...] [snip...] [snip...]
>
> I remember a couple of flight ops programs in WorldFlight (originally
> written for UNIMATIC at UAL) that had comments written with a cheesy
> German accent, and I found that to be rather funny.
>
"Achtung! Alles Touristen Und Non-Tech-nischen Looken Peepers!
Das Machine Control Is Nicht Fur Gerfingerpoken Und Mittengrabben.
Oderwise Is Easy Schnappen Der Springwerk, Blowenfuse, Und
Poppencorken Mit Spitzensparken. Der Machine Is Diggen By
Expertzen Only. Is Nicht Fur Gerverken By Dummkopfen. Das
Rubbernecken Sightseenen Keepen Das Kottenpicken Hands In Das
Pockets. So Relaxen Und Watchen Das Blinkenlights."
Walter Bushell
> >"My hoovercraft is FULL of EELS!"
>
> "Drop your panties Sir William, I cannot wait until lunch time, etc"
>
> or from another source
>
> "Alas, the Madonna is not functioning"
>
> (Klieban I think - "Cats", "Whack your porcupine", "Never eat anything
> larger than your head" - whatever happened to him ?
The last book I saw of his had a preface by the author of _Mouse_.
Suicide I'm afraid.
> Almost a precursor
> to Larson - but a little bit more surreal)
> My counsellor told me I must learn to live in the present.
> Well I'm halfway there - I can't remember what I did yesterday.
--
The last temptation is the highest treason:
To do the right thing for the wrong reason. --T..S. Eliot
Walter
Steve O'Hara-Smith
ge...@mail.ocis.net (Gene Wirchenko) wrote:
GW> Steve O'Hara-Smith <ste...@eircom.net> wrote:
GW>
GW> > This is the best of all days in month mnemonics. The "Thirty
GW> >days has ..." one to me is about as easy to get right as "The palace
GW> >with the chalice, Has the brew that is true" (or was it the other
GW> >one).
GW>
GW> I have never heard of this one. Please explain it.
It comes from an old (1956) British comedy called "The Court
Jester" in which the hero is given two drinks one poisoned and told
The pellet with the poison's
In the vessel with the pestle
And the chalice with the palace
Has the brew that is true.
Within two repetitions the hero has the lines in the wrong
order and soon becomes completely confused.
Gene Wirchenko
[snip]
> It comes from an old (1956) British comedy called "The Court
>Jester" in which the hero is given two drinks one poisoned and told
>
> The pellet with the poison's
> In the vessel with the pestle
> And the chalice with the palace
> Has the brew that is true.
>
> Within two repetitions the hero has the lines in the wrong
>order and soon becomes completely confused.
Thank you.
ObAFC: At only a 50% chance of penalising, it makes a poor source
of Clue.
Glen Herrmannsfeldt
"Steve O'Hara-Smith" <ste...@eircom.net> wrote in message
news:20030721074125....@eircom.net...
> On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 23:32:27 GMT
> ge...@mail.ocis.net (Gene Wirchenko) wrote:
>
> GW> Steve O'Hara-Smith <ste...@eircom.net> wrote:
> GW>
> GW> > This is the best of all days in month mnemonics. The "Thirty
> GW> >days has ..." one to me is about as easy to get right as "The palace
> GW> >with the chalice, Has the brew that is true" (or was it the other
> GW> >one).
> GW>
> GW> I have never heard of this one. Please explain it.
>
> It comes from an old (1956) British comedy called "The Court
> Jester" in which the hero is given two drinks one poisoned and told
>
> The pellet with the poison's
> In the vessel with the pestle
> And the chalice with the palace
> Has the brew that is true.
>
> Within two repetitions the hero has the lines in the wrong
> order and soon becomes completely confused.
There is a related scene in "Princess Bride".
-- glen
Ken Wheatley
news:tF0G/oHpvmT...@visi.com...
> Here in alt.folklore.computers,
> "Michael N. LeVine" <mle...@redshift.com> spake unto us, saying:
>
>
> I've heard stories about comments in the Burroughs MCP before, some of
> them telling of routines called JUDGE and SHERRIF [sic], and a whole
> storyline that ran through parts of the process management code.
>
> Perhaps some of the c.s.u partitipants can enlighten the a.f.c folks?
There was certainly a motherforker in MCP at one time, that got renamed (to
ANABOLISM?). There was also JEDGARHOOVER, and I seem to remember that GEORGE
and SOPHIA lived in a PALACE (variables were all uppercase then).
The Burroughs Meduim Systems also had some humour in code. I think it was
the DMPALL utility that had references to karting where comments should have
been if anyone would have had any hope of understanding what the assembler
code was trying to do.
Back on the Large Systems (now Clearpath NX) I was once surprised to see a
commnet of mine. I was looking at SYMBOL/SOURCENDLII, which was a set of
unsupported network protocol sources, and there was a long comment block
that signed off with 'Ronald Reagan, Washington Zoo'. I wrote that comment
when I was at the Midland Bank Brent computer centre many years ago!
Finally, the Burroughs Large Systems (or some of the early versions) has a
matrix of lights that could tell the priests what was happening. A
comprehensible example was that if a problem occured it would display the
work 'DUMP'. When idle the lights normally displayed the Burroughs big-B
logo. However the Uk Police National Computer Unit changed theirs to show a
picture of a pig.
Henk Stegeman
> What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
>
> As an example here's one convention I've started using recently when
> I need to leave a note to future developers (probably myself) warning
> about a needed improvement that I can't get to right now; in C:
> /* 8-( this sorting routine needs to be recoded to a faster method ) */
> This allows me to search for the emoticon "8-(" to find the warts.
In a IBM mainframe assembler program:
* POSSIBLE RETURN CODES. 03410000
RC00 EQU 0 LIFE IS WONDERFULL. 03420061
RC04 EQU 4 STILL WORTH LIVING. 03430061
RC08 EQU 8 ITS GETTING HARD. 03440061
RC12 EQU 12 WHAT THE HACK... 03450061
RC16 EQU 16 WHERE IS MY LIFE INSURANCE ? 03460061
Henk
jmfb...@aol.com
Steve O'Hara-Smith <ste...@eircom.net> wrote:
>On Sat, 19 Jul 2003 21:27:03 GMT
>Charles Richmond <rich...@ev1.net> wrote:
>
>CR> To me, the easiest thing is to use the knuckles of your two
>CR> hands.
>
> This is the best of all days in month mnemonics. The "Thirty
>days has ..." one to me is about as easy to get right as "The palace
>with the chalice, Has the brew that is true" (or was it the other one).
<chuckle> I sure like to know how often they had to practice.
Don't forget the corollary to the month one...something about r
in the name of the month. I can't remember if you're supposed
to do something or not to do something.
jmfb...@aol.com
Steve O'Hara-Smith <ste...@eircom.net> wrote:
>On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 23:32:27 GMT
>ge...@mail.ocis.net (Gene Wirchenko) wrote:
>
>GW> Steve O'Hara-Smith <ste...@eircom.net> wrote:
>GW>
>GW> > This is the best of all days in month mnemonics. The "Thirty
>GW> >days has ..." one to me is about as easy to get right as "The palace
>GW> >with the chalice, Has the brew that is true" (or was it the other
>GW> >one).
>GW>
>GW> I have never heard of this one. Please explain it.
>
> It comes from an old (1956) British comedy called "The Court
>Jester" in which the hero is given two drinks one poisoned and told
>
> The pellet with the poison's
> In the vessel with the pestle
> And the chalice with the palace
> Has the brew that is true.
>
> Within two repetitions the hero has the lines in the wrong
>order and soon becomes completely confused.
Danny Kaye played the bumbling hero. He was probably the only
actor who could have done that part.
Torsten Poulin
> I find error messages with a snippet of Danish (my wife's
> second language) attached are very satisfying.
Somebody once showed me a horrible old piece of Pascal code he
had inherited for controlling some kind of lab equipment. It
contained exactly one comment in Danish:
{ Midlertidigt }
Now, the program was a real mess. It had no procedures or
functions and the names of the variables could have lifted out
of an old BASIC program. The poor guy, who didn't know Danish,
hoped that the comment might at least provide a clue. It didn't.
"Midlertidigt" can be translated as "temporary", "interim", or
"provisional". At the time, the program had been in use for about
25 years.
--
Torsten
Mel Wilson
Steve O'Hara-Smith <ste...@eircom.net> wrote:
>On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 23:32:27 GMT
>ge...@mail.ocis.net (Gene Wirchenko) wrote:
>
>GW> Steve O'Hara-Smith <ste...@eircom.net> wrote:
>GW>
>GW> > This is the best of all days in month mnemonics. The "Thirty
>GW> >days has ..." one to me is about as easy to get right as "The palace
>GW> >with the chalice, Has the brew that is true" (or was it the other
>GW> >one).
>GW>
>GW> I have never heard of this one. Please explain it.
>
> It comes from an old (1956) British comedy called "The Court
>Jester" in which the hero is given two drinks one poisoned and told
British? Danny Kaye, in any event.
>
> The pellet with the poison's
> In the vessel with the pestle
> And the chalice with the palace
> Has the brew that is true.
>
> Within two repetitions the hero has the lines in the wrong
>order and soon becomes completely confused.
Esp. after someone loses one of the cups and a flagon
with a dragon has to be substituted.
Regards. Mel.
Abigail
in <URL:news:3F19D2FF...@ev1.net>:
++ Charlie Gibbs wrote:
++ >
++ > In article <3f18e035...@news.ocis.net> ge...@mail.ocis.net
++ > (Gene Wirchenko) writes:
++ >
++ > >Larry__Weiss <l...@airmail.net> wrote:
++ > >
++ > >>What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program
++ > >>source code?
++ > >
++ > > I put these two comments in an invoicing program:
++ > >
++ > > * "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may..."
++ > > * Repeating Entries are written to cinw as they are
++ > > * encountered...
++ > >
++ > > * ...but Auto-Credit transactions are a consolidation.
++ >
++ > * SUBROUTINES (I.E. CLOSE ALL HATCHES BEFORE DIVING)
++ >
++ > Whenever I write a routine to calculate the number of days in a
++ > month, the comments are the "Thirty days hath September..." verse
++ > (all neatly lined up with the corresponding code, of course).
++ >
++ To me, the easiest thing is to use the knuckles of your two
++ hands. Start with January on the left knuckle of your left
++ hand. Then count the months using the knuckles and the spaces
++ between the knuckles. Every month that falls into a space,
++ has less than 31 days. When you go from July to August, you
++ are going from the last knuckle on your left hand to the
++ first knuckle on your right hand.
Yeah, I once did this in programming class. But I didn't get high
marks for having a 14 month year.
Abigail
Walter Bushell
It seems it summed up the program very well, you do a kludge for a
special one time run and the customer takes it and runs it forever.
Joe Morris
>What sort of embedded humor have poeople here seen in program source code?
Don't forget the famous tag line in the UNIX CPU scheduler...
(from slp.c, 6th edition Unix):
/*
* This routine is called to reschedule the CPU.
* if the calling process is not in RUN state,
* arrangements for it to restart must have
* been made elsewhere, usually by calling via sleep.
*/
swtch()
[code snipped]
/*
* Switch to stack of the new process and set up
* his segmentation registers.
*/
retu(rp->p_addr);
sureg();
/*
* If the new process paused because it was
* swapped out, set the stack level to the last call
* to savu(u_ssav). This means that the return
* which is executed immediately after the call to aretu
* actually returns from the last routine which did
* the savu.
*
* You are not expected to understand this.
*/
[and a tip o'the hat to Dennis Richie]
Joe Morris
Nick Keighley
> In article <3f191cf1...@news.m.iinet.net.au>,
> ace join_to wa...@iinet.net.au (Tony Epton) wrote:
>
> > I find error messages with a snippet of Danish (my wife's second
> > language) attached are very satisfying.
> > such as "I wish to visit a bookmaker to have my shoes repaired"
>
> "My hoovercraft is FULL of EELS!"
A légpárnás hajóm tele van angolnával.
--
Nick Keighley
Bill Sudbrink
Often referenced in old Warner Brothers cartoons. Usually
mangled. Back to the "Thirty days..." rhyme, I always liked
the way Bugs Bunny mangled it in an early appearance:
Thirty day has September,
April, June and Montana,
All the rest have cold weather,
except for the summer which isn't often.
Pete Hornby
"Ken Wheatley" <kenneth....@gb.unisys.com> wrote in message
news:bfgegv$28ej$1...@si05.rsvl.unisys.com...
> "Richard Steiner" <rste...@visi.com> wrote in message
> news:tF0G/oHpvmT...@visi.com...
> > Here in alt.folklore.computers,
> > "Michael N. LeVine" <mle...@redshift.com> spake unto us, saying:
> >
> > >This story is second hand at best...
> >
> > I've heard stories about comments in the Burroughs MCP before, some of
> > them telling of routines called JUDGE and SHERRIF [sic], and a whole
> > storyline that ran through parts of the process management code.
> >
> > Perhaps some of the c.s.u partitipants can enlighten the a.f.c folks?
>
> There was certainly a motherforker in MCP at one time, that got renamed
(to
> ANABOLISM?). There was also JEDGARHOOVER, and I seem to remember that
GEORGE
> and SOPHIA lived in a PALACE (variables were all uppercase then).
JEDGARHOOVER is still there. It's the MCP routine which determines what to
do
when a security violation occurs. The parameters are SUSPECT, INFORMER,
DOSSIER,
EVIDENCE and MERCY.
Pete
Rupert Pigott
news:bfh4co$2oil$1...@si05.rsvl.unisys.com...
LOL, Excellent. :)
Haven't written fun stuff like that in ages.
Cheers,
Rupert
Andrew Gabriel
"Ken Wheatley" <kenneth....@gb.unisys.com> writes:
>
> There was certainly a motherforker in MCP at one time, that got renamed (to
> ANABOLISM?). There was also JEDGARHOOVER, and I seem to remember that GEORGE
> and SOPHIA lived in a PALACE (variables were all uppercase then).
In SunOS 4, there are a set of kernel functions which handle address
space of processes, and they all have a prefix as_ such as as_map,
as_checkprot, etc.
Sun was responsible for providing the VM system for SVR4, and so these
functions were put into the SVR4 codebase and sent off to AT&T.
AT&T went through the source and made merging and other changes as
necessary. There was just one change to this file -- the function
which searched for a hole in the address space, as_hole, was renamed
as_gap. ;-)
--
Andrew Gabriel
Walter Bushell
Charles Richmond
program one day. You just have to be patient and *wait* for
his return... After all, the copy of the program you had was
clearly labeled *provisional*.
Charles Richmond
>
> Charles Richmond (rich...@ev1.net) wrote on MMMDCIX September MCMXCIII
> in <URL:news:3F19D2FF...@ev1.net>:
> ++
> ++
> ++ To me, the easiest thing is to use the knuckles of your two
> ++ hands. Start with January on the left knuckle of your left
> ++ hand. Then count the months using the knuckles and the spaces
> ++ between the knuckles. Every month that falls into a space,
> ++ has less than 31 days. When you go from July to August, you
> ++ are going from the last knuckle on your left hand to the
> ++ first knuckle on your right hand.
>
> Yeah, I once did this in programming class. But I didn't get high
> marks for having a 14 month year.
>
when to stop...
Charles Richmond
July, and August. In very cold climates (in the northern
hemisphere), these are the only months without snow.
I have heard that you should only prune your shrubs in months
that have an "R" in them... Some say only eat shell fish in
months with an "R" in them...because in the summer, the "Red
Tide" can make the shell fish posionous.
Charlie Gibbs
how...@shubs.net (Howard S Shubs) writes:
>In article <bfcrd2$s8j$2...@pcls4.std.com>, Megan <m...@TheWorld.com>
>wrote:
>
>> There are quite a few things in the RT sources... I posted a number
>> of them someplace a few years ago, maybe I should collect them and
>> make them available somewhere...
>
>Is the instance of AutoDecrement Deferred addressing mode still in there?
"Defer, defer, to the Lord High Executioner..."
Oops. Sorry.
In one of my programs on a piece of code that worked around
one of MS-DOS's crocks, I stole a quote from Frank Zappa:
This tree is ugly and it wants to die.
--
/~\ cgi...@kltpzyxm.invalid (Charlie Gibbs)
\ / I'm really at ac.dekanfrus if you read it the right way.
X Top-posted messages will probably be ignored. See RFC1855.
/ \ HTML will DEFINITELY be ignored. Join the ASCII ribbon campaign!
Charlie Gibbs
rfco...@aol.com (RFCOMMSYS) writes:
>Seasoned programmers (as opposed to young upstarts who swear on a stack of
>Bibles that THEIR code cannot possibly be malfunctioning) will appreciate
>this comment found in a program:
>
>* THIS SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN ...... ..... BUT ......
>
>(followed by code to handle the seemingly impossible).
A fellow I know always wrote such a routine in his programs,
and labeled it CANTHAPN.
Charlie Gibbs
(Charles Richmond) writes:
>Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>
>> Whenever I write a routine to calculate the number of days in a
>> month, the comments are the "Thirty days hath September..." verse
>> (all neatly lined up with the corresponding code, of course).
>
>To me, the easiest thing is to use the knuckles of your two
>hands. Start with January on the left knuckle of your left
>hand. Then count the months using the knuckles and the spaces
>between the knuckles. Every month that falls into a space,
>has less than 31 days. When you go from July to August, you
>are going from the last knuckle on your left hand to the
>first knuckle on your right hand.
Say, that's clever...
>Can you get this into a comment???
Perhaps, but I haven't yet found a computer that implemented knuckles...
Pete Hornby
"Rupert Pigott" <r...@dark-try-removing-this-boong.demon.co.uk> wrote in
message news:10588068...@saucer.planet.gong...
Nor have we, sad to say.. That procedure signature certainly
predates my involvement with the MCP architecture, which
started in 1977.
Pete
Eric Smith
> Often referenced in old Warner Brothers cartoons. Usually
> mangled. Back to the "Thirty days..." rhyme, I always liked
> the way Bugs Bunny mangled it in an early appearance:
>
> Thirty day has September,
> April, June and Montana,
> All the rest have cold weather,
> except for the summer which isn't often.
Which is even better than the variation I've heard from
multiple sources, one of which credits it to Mad Magazine:
Thirty days hath Septober,
April, June, and no wonder.
All the rest have peanut butter,
Except my grandmother, who has a red tricycle.
Steve O'Hara-Smith
mwi...@the-wire.com (Mel Wilson) wrote:
MW> > It comes from an old (1956) British comedy called "The Court
MW> >Jester" in which the hero is given two drinks one poisoned and told
MW>
MW> British? Danny Kaye, in any event.
Well, I *thought* it was British - I could be wrong.
--
C:>WIN | Directable Mirrors
The computer obeys and wins. |A Better Way To Focus The Sun
You lose and Bill collects. | licenses available - see:
| http://www.sohara.org/
Charlie Gibbs
(Bill Sudbrink) writes:
>Often referenced in old Warner Brothers cartoons. Usually
>mangled. Back to the "Thirty days..." rhyme, I always liked
>the way Bugs Bunny mangled it in an early appearance:
>
>Thirty day has September,
>April, June and Montana,
>All the rest have cold weather,
>except for the summer which isn't often.
While we're in the toon world...
"Thirty days hath September, April, June and November.
All the rest have thirty one except for Gypsy Rose Lee
and everyone knew what she had."
- Mel Blanc