History Of Debugging...

66 years ago, on the 9th September, 1947, operators of the Mark II Aiken Relay Computer being tested at Harvard University, found something curious trapped between points at Relay #70, Panel F. A note made at the time explains, this was the “first actual case of bug being found”.

History records that the legendary Grace Hopper was the person who located the moth, and in so doing, helped popularise the idea of “debugging computers”.

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If only debugging was this simple nowadays!

Original Post..

I did know of that anecdotal origin of that usage of the word "bug" with relation to computers, but I have never seen the original bug! :thumb:

However, the fact that the person who discovered the original bug was named Grace Hopper suspiciously sounded like an april fool to me. ;) But I looked up that name and obviously it's absolutely authentic. Setting up such an elaborate Wikipedia article just for a hoax would most certainly have been way too much effort. OTOH, if I'd have seen something like that in a fictional movie, I'd have sworn that something like that would never ever happen in real life... :D

15:30 Vacuum tube #70 began smoking for no reason...
15:45 Bug Found

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Originally Posted by Eri523

However, the fact that the person who disvovered the original bug was named Grace Hopper suspiciously sounded like an april fool to me. ;) But I looked up that name and obviously it's absolutely authentic. Setting up such an elaborate Wikipedia article just for a hoax would most certainly have been way too much effort. ...

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If it is a hoax, someone should tell the US Navy - they named a guided-missile destroyer after her: http://www.hopper.navy.mil/ :D

She was also the first person to develop a compiler - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-0_programming_language

actually, this only prooves that the concept of "a bug" meaning an error already existed prior to this occurrence.

why else would there be
"first actual case of a bug being found".

That only indicates that the terminology of "a bug" already existed and this was the first time it was really an actual live bug was found in an electronic computer.
wouldn't surprise me that "debugging" term originated in the time of the mechanical looms and where a bug in the threads could mess up the weaving.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OReubens

actually, this only prooves that the concept of "a bug" meaning an error already existed prior to this occurrence.

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The way I've always understood this is that the term 'bug' had been used to describe all sorts of faults in mechanical items for a long time, but when this moth was found it helped to popularise the use in regards to computer software.

I think there is a quote from Thomas Edison about a bug in a phonograph somewhere.

This thread really bugs me.

Debugging is a methodical process of finding and reducing the number of bugs, or defects, in a computer program or a piece of electronic hardware, thus making it behave as expected. Debugging tends to be harder when various subsystems are tightly coupled, as changes in one may cause bugs to emerge in another. Many books have been written about debugging, as it involves numerous aspects, including interactive debugging,