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!)… πŸ™‚

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