🚀 go-pugleaf

This is neat!  This is the first time I've ever heard a story that I was
actually involved in come back around -- significantly altered -- after
many years.

Here's the real scoop.  I was a lowly maintenance programmer way back when,
working for DEC on TOPS-10, and one of my first tasks was to go through the
stack of SPRs (Software Performance Report) for PIP (Peripheral Interchange
Program, sort of a mishmash of cp/dd/tr/pr etc.).

One of the SPRs went something like this:  "A bug in the /W switch to PIP
causes our line printer to catch fire."  The best part of it was that the
SPR form had a box labelled "Reproducible", and the box was checked!

The /W (I think) switch was supposed to convert large numbers of blank lines
into small numbers of form feeds, or vice versa -- I forget which.  Anyway,
it had a bug where it would emit a very large number of form feeds, like
2^18.  This would cause the printer to feed paper as fast as it could.  If
the paper was of a low enough quality, and the humidity was low enough,
paper dust would accumulate in the air near the printer, static electricity
would build up, a spark would go ZAP and the dust would go WOOF.

Checking to see if this bug was reproducible must have been fun!
-- 
Larry Campbell                          The Boston Software Works, Inc.
camp...@bsw.com                        120 Fulton Street
wjh12!redsox!campbell                   Boston, MA 02109