The origin of the first bug
Always wondered where the term bug came from? Been pondering what debugging is about? Well, here goes:
One day in the 1940s, Harvard’s famed Mark I–the precursor of today’s computers–failed. When the Harvard scientists looked inside, they found a moth that had lodged in the Mark I’s circuits. They removed the moth with a pair of tweezers, and from then on, whenever there was a problem with the Mark I, the scientists said they were looking for bugs. The term has stuck through the years.
(Dun’s Business Month, February 1983)
That’s the tale at least. BYTE.com has taken a little closer look at the myth.
From now on, I’ll always say there’s a moth in my program when something doesn’t work (I really hope this catches on!)… 🙂
Take heed – I once got a moth in my ear, it was properly horrible.
Paul,
So then we know for sure that moths are behind all of our troubles! 🙂
lol. But that is a real horror story, Paul 😉
Amazing! – I just e-mailed this info to a few friends! It's really quite interesting to see the origins of terms commonly used today. Like, who said HyperText should be called what it is?
Benjamin,
Maybe that's an idea for an upcoming post? 🙂