Why debugging..?

[lZakl]

I was reading a good sys admin book, and it states that the term “debug” actually came from one of the first relay-switch-based computers. Apparently a moth had become wedged between one of the relays and shorted out that circuit, causing faulty data. It was a giant calculator built in 1947. Once they “debugged” the machine, it behaved properly and the term “debug” was born.

Does anyone know if this story is substantiated by facts, or is it just another Betsy Ross (who is a legend, even though the ‘facts’ surrounding that legend are false.)

It's interesting either way I think...

-- Zak

[vkaryl]

No clue about that really, but I have one "quasi-apocryphal" tale which substantiates the possibility: my dad was always in the defense-industry business after the war, and worked for a while within the "remains" of the Manhattan Project when I was a child, first at a lab in Kentucky, then in Los Alamos. I remember him laughing one day at a "hotshot" engineer (real young guy with a degree, natch) who had got all hot and bothered over a machine of some sort which was spewing out oddball info for no apparent reason.... and the reason turned out to be a spider which had got into the "works" and birthed her millions of babies....

And I can back up this anecdote from personal experience: gas appliances have relatively few moving parts comparatively. We have a propane wall heater which worked like a charm from 1992 until 2000. Winter of 2000, it started trying to come on, clicking hissing and banging like they do, then going back to sleep for a while repeat ad infinitum ad nauseam. Besides the fact that it was noisy and kept us awake nights, it wasn't heating either. Finally got the Amerigas guy up here (in two feet of snow!) to look at the sucker, and guess what? mama spider had littered (literally) her millions in the gas-jet orifice.... Once "debugged", it's worked fine ever since.

Bugs. Yup.

[pmkpmk]

True story. Here's the picture of it: [en.wikipedia.org...]

Full article: [en.wikipedia.org...]

In 1946, when Hopper was released from active duty, she joined the Harvard Faculty at the Computation Laboratory where she continued her work on the Mark II and Mark III. Operators traced an error in the Mark II to a moth trapped in a relay, coining the term bug. This bug was carefully removed and taped to the log book September 9th 1945. Hopper recounted the cause to be an actual insect stuck between the contacts of a relay in the logic mechanisms of the device.

[lZakl]

vkaryl,

Spiders.. lol When a friend says "my heaters not acting right" The furthest thing from your mind is "Bugs"! (At least furshest from MY mind")

pmkpmk,

Bookmarked them. Going to show them to my wife, she thought it was probably true.. She'll be glad to know she was right ... as always ;0) Thanks!

-- Zak

[JerryOdom]

One of my CS professors loved to tell this story.