barad@brand.UUCP (Herb Barad) (08/02/85)
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and
weary,
Over a quaint and curious program written long before,
While I nodded nearly sleeping, suddenly I heard a beeping
From my console; bugs a-creeping, creeping in the system core.
'Twas some misstroke I had entered, errant thumbstroke not
well centered,
Just a typo, nothing more.
Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December,
When each dying disk pack member's fate was listed on the
door.
Eagerly I wished the morrow. Hopefully I'd seek to borrow
Program guides to ease my sorrow, from the dump piled on the
floor.
For my small glich had created endless loops of cosines, fated
To be rooted evermore.
Deep into my console peering, long I sat there wondering,
fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams all mortal programmers had dreamt
before,
That some subroutine, much needed, had my core space just
exceeded,
And was therefore rudely weeded, banished from the system
core,
Exiled to where none can forage, software limbo: federal
storage.
There to languish evermore.
Had this ghastly curse befell me? Cpu time now would tell me.
Missing code could very well be anywhere. I must explore.
LIB.FORTRAN, LIB.CARDECK, even secret LIB.STARTREK,
All these DSNS I queried. To the last they came up poor.
One last hope, a final member: biorhythms for November,
Only this and nothing more.
But I knew there was insurance for my toil and hard endurance.
Nervously I sought assurance, hopefully I did implore,
Day and hour, nay every second, when the grand machine had
reckoned
I had backed up all my labors safe within the system core.
For eons it did cogitate, then printed out that fateful date.
Quoth the console, "Nevermore."
- John A. Kogut
New Carollton, Maryland
Datamation, January 1980 p.184
--
Herb Barad [USC - Signal and Image Processing Institute]
...!{lbl-csam,trwrb}!trwspf!herb or
...!{lbl-csam,trwrb}!trwspf!brand!barad