Messages in this thread |  | | From | Systemkennung Linux <> | Subject | Re: GLOAT BLOAT (Was: Boot messages, Ideas for v2.1) | Date | Mon, 24 Jun 1996 16:41:28 +0200 (MET DST) |
| |
Hi,
> When I did my Linux parallel port driver rewrite some years ago, the > original author had put a comment something like "/* unknown error; > on fire? */ under a conditional. I liked it so much I turned it into > an error message (for better or worse...) that said "lp on fire". > I had never seen that error message in any other unix (at the time, > I had only used BSD on a VAX and SunOS, none of the machines I used > *had* an lp device, and I wasn't the sysadmin anyway). > > Just out of curiousity, can you name any of those older unices with > the same error message?
Not a UNIX, but a CPU with a similar thing. One of the first versions of a CPU, I think it was the Z80, had a debugging instruction left in the instruction set that would toggle the voltage levels on one pin as fast as possible. This turned out to be let lethal to the electronics and so the instruction was named "Halt and catch fire".
Can't even remember where I got this story from or if it's a urban legend of the computer bussines, so just take it for your personal amusement,
Ralf
|  |