kurt@fluke.UUCP (Kurt Guntheroth) (09/02/83)
I have an interesting old article from the CoEvolution Quarterly (The people
who did the Whole Earth Catalog) that talks about computer slang. Among the
interesting things in this article is an etymology of some words like 'bug'.
Now we have all heard the story about how 'bug' is supposed to come from an
incident involving an early computer where a hardware failure was traced to
an insect that cooked itself on some tube. But how many of us actually
believe that story? In a heavily air-conditioned high security lab? Really?
Well it turns out that 'bug' is also an old bit of communications jargon
that names the buzzes, chirps, and hums that can be heard on improperly
tuned telephone lines.
Now considering that early computer hardware types were probably
communication types before they discovered computers, doesn't that sound
like a more reasonable source for the word 'bug', and its typical use
"getting the bugs out of the system" and "debugging"?
Come on Bell Labs people, I thought one of you would have thought of this.
Kurt ('no bugs in MY system') Guntheroth
John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.