Jargon file v2.1.5 28 NOV 1990 -- part 1 of 6

[mdivax1!mdisea!mitchell]

In article <207 at frcs.UUCP> paul at frcs.UUCP (Paul Nash) writes:
>Thus spake eric at snark.thyrsus.com (Eric S. Raymond):
>
>> BUG [from telephone terminology, ``bugs in a telephone cable'', blamed
>>    for noisy lines] n. An unwanted and unintended property of a
>>    program, esp. one which causes it to malfunction. See FEATURE.
>
>I have heard this attributed to Rear Admiral (retd) Grace Hopper, who 
>had a malfunctioning program.  The cause was traced to a fried moth in
>the back of the computer.
>

Somewhere in the back of a dusty file drawer I have a xerox of a
mazine article which printed a photo of Grace Hopper's logbook entry about
the bug - with the bug itself (beaten to death by relay contacts)
taped to the page.

-- 
mitchell at mdi.com (Bill Mitchell)