bugs also used to be real bugs
And that, kids, is why we call it a “Patch”
31–40 of 60 posts
Re: And that, kids, is why we call it a “Patch”
#32There were patches to machines, cables, memory modules, dresses, etc etc before punch cards. They are all better metaphors than that picture because they offer functionality and aren't just binarily subtractive like the picture.
The patch panel on the enigma encryption devices seem like an apt metaphor for patching code.
Re: And that, kids, is why we call it a “Patch”
#33That's amusing, but the linguistics sounds wrong to me. The "patch" tool was written by Larry Wall (of Perl fame) in the early 80's based on the preexisting diff format. Neither had much ancestry in common with paper tape storage, which was never really a Unix thing.
Introduction of patch: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.unix-wizards/SDJZ28k40Co...
Larry Wall using the term "patch" prior to that: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/net.news.b/HhK847iU7ZA/7Wox7...
(It was already a well-established term.)
Re: And that, kids, is why we call it a “Patch”
#34Here's a photo of the first computer "bug" from 1947: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13404211
Incorrect. It was the first case of a software bug being an actual bug. In other words - a true pun. The first computer bug was found in 1843 by Ada Lovelace. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug#History Thomas Edison used the term bug to indicate a flaw in 1873 http://theinstitute.ieee.org/tech-history/technology-history...
Concept of insects getting into computing machines is likely as old as such machines; oldest I'm aware of might be the Antikythera mechanism, which some estimate to be as old as 200BC.
As for the "correctness" of "bug" - appears you agree this is the first historically documented reference to an insect being the source of a computing error and the "quotes" infer this means insect, though agree this might not be obvious to some.
Re: And that, kids, is why we call it a “Patch”
#35Things like this are great to remind ourselves of some of the rationale for the ways things are. When I worked at a company which used a lot of Fortran, I kept a punch card at my desk. Among other things this made it easier to explain to new people why there was a column limit for code. Eventually an HR person came around and told me to remove the card because the top management was coming to visit soon. Among other…
What prop did you use to explain pekludge_()?
Wow, this is an obscure reference. Nothing at all turns up on DDG, and two results on google: One Slashdot comment from seventeen years ago, and two undocumented lines in an attachment from the Eclipse IDE bugzilla:
https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=9569&cid=1418091
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/attachment.cgi?bugid=436478&ac...
This may be the most obscure reference to a thing that clearly exists that I've ever seen. Well done.
Re: And that, kids, is why we call it a “Patch”
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Incorrect. It was the first case of a software bug being an actual bug. In other words - a true pun. The first computer bug was found in 1843 by Ada Lovelace. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug#History Thomas Edison used the term bug to indicate a flaw in 1873 http://theinstitute.ieee.org/tech-history/technology-history...
Punch card's date back to 1725 so the term may relate to literal bugs. Though, not in what we think of as computers.
Language nit-pick: in English, we just use "s" to make words plural, no apostrophe is needed. The correct way to make "card" plural is "cards."
Re: And that, kids, is why we call it a “Patch”
#37bugs also used to be real bugs
For those interested Grace Hopper helped popularize this term
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. Stemming from the first bug, today we call
errors or glitches in a program a bug.
Reference (which wikipedia cites) http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Hopper.Danis.html
Re: And that, kids, is why we call it a “Patch”
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe just to make the desks look clean? But yeah, HR... everyone's favourite department, it seems.
HR's function at a large company is to defend the company against you.
Oooooh and also, if you're not paying for the product, you -are- the product.
Leave these glib platitudes at Reddit.
Re: And that, kids, is why we call it a “Patch”
#39bugs also used to be real bugs
That’s not true. The word “bug” has been used for problems in engineering well before computers; the funny story we all heard about a moth trapped in a relay causing a _bug_ in the Harvard Mark II is from 1947. Edison himself used the word back in 1878. The Wikipedia article about “Software bug” is pretty interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug#Etymology
Re: And that, kids, is why we call it a “Patch”
#40 no it isn't. The word 'patch' was used to mean 'a small fix' hundreds of years before computers were even invented. e.g. patching a hole in a sweater.