miller@loral.UUCP (David P. Miller) (02/22/86)
5. What was the world's costliest program error ?.
A: A missing hyphen in the navigation
program for the first fly-by of the
planet venus caused the destruction
of an $ 18,000,000 rocket.
I believe that the mistake was not a missing hyphen, but a period which
should have been a comma. It was in the FORTRAN statement similar to:
DO 10 I=1.3 => should have been DO 10 I=1,3
John.
Question: Is John Van Zandt correct, or is GAMEBRAINS tm. right ?.
BIG DAVE.
--
David P. Miller - Loral Instrumentation. / USUAL \
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"Sticks and stones may hurt my bones but words ......................."kenyon@nmtvax.UUCP (Rob Kenyon -A stranger in a stranger land) (02/24/86)
In article <> miller@loral.UUCP (David P. Miller) writes: > > 5. What was the world's costliest program error ?. > > I believe that the mistake was not a missing hyphen, but a period which >should have been a comma. It was in the FORTRAN statement similar to: > > DO 10 I=1.3 => should have been DO 10 I=1,3 >John. > >Question: Is John Van Zandt correct, or is GAMEBRAINS tm. right ?. > I have heard from multiple sources that it was the old "period for a comma" trick. Too bad $18M was lost because someone fell for it. -- Robert Kenyon p / ...ucbvax!unmvax!nmtvax!kenyon / kenyon@nmt / g You know how that rabbit feels, going under your speeding wheels...
silber@uiucdcsp.CS.UIUC.EDU (02/28/86)
John is correct, insofar as I know. I've seen the example he presents in three classes at two universities, but as of yet not in print. I doubt that it was a missing hyphen since most of these programs start out in FORTRAN, and I can't see any point to a hyphen in any sort of program.