tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25922407.post665706544185622517..comments2024-03-25T22:12:49.064-07:00Comments on Gerald Weinberg's Secrets of Writing and Consulting: My Favorite BugGerald M. Weinberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05902673055244863609noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25922407.post-59858154148094737392009-03-02T05:47:00.000-08:002009-03-02T05:47:00.000-08:00I have your error repeated often. It is nice to ha...I have your error repeated often. It is nice to have some progress reported and allow the user the chance to stop the program and keep the hard-earned results.<BR/><BR/>I don't remember many of my programming errors, I guess there are too many of them to recall. I do recall one error about errors. I was working on my dissertation research at home. I sternly told myself that I did not have the time to make and correct programming errors. Therefore, I would have to program error free from that moment forward. <BR/><BR/>I failed. I still made programming errors and consumed hours finding and correcting them. I just couldn't will myself to be perfect no matter how hard I tried.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02305697664289102933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25922407.post-23195230569004628252009-02-28T16:22:00.000-08:002009-02-28T16:22:00.000-08:00A couple of tales.In 1966, I had written programs ...A couple of tales.<BR/><BR/>In 1966, I had written programs in FORTRAN and assembler for the CDC 1604 in an academic environment. That got me a gig with a small computer manufacturer using similar architecture. <BR/><BR/>I was handed a "95% complete" program to bring to completion - the time frame was 2 weeks. 6 weeks later, I realized that when my predecessor had coded from a listing of his old program, the keypunch operator had misread "KAH" for another valid mnemonic, "KXH". Solved, went home for the day.<BR/><BR/>On to my own code. At around 11 PM on December 30, 1966, I was feverishly trying to find out why my program just wasn't working. Stepping through my code it miraculously dawned on me - the true meaning of "load operand address"! Damn glad to be able to attend the New Year's Eve party where it had been rumored that one of the girl programmers would appear nude - she did, in body paint to look like the (U of) Minnesota Golden Gopher!<BR/><BR/>Two weeks later, I had my "own" oomputer on which to check out my program. I was assured that it was OK, they had already corrected 88 back-plane wiring errors (an early "jobs" program had trained basically uneducated women to use wire-wrap guns, but somehow left out the part about reading diagrams). <BR/><BR/>I was stumped and my boss Bob stoked up his briar with cherry blend to have a look-see. In minutes he had found wiring error #89 - in the adder (yes, the Noah log table joke), a carry from bit 9 automatically propagated to bit 11, which meant that about half of the time, something would go wrong.Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16818265261392759199noreply@blogger.com