Re: Worst error messages of all time.

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#4668

From: d... Dave Sill
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 1990 12:49

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In article <22...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>, pet...@opus.cs.mcgill.ca (Peter Deutsch) writes:
>
>Another favorite, "Can't grok <string>" I believe this was
>"lex"? Maybe "yacc"? ("LEX" is the Lexical analyser generator
>program. "YACC" is "Yet Another Compiler Compiler").
>Anyways, "grok" hasd found its way into the UNIX lexicon
>as a general "I don't understand" lament.

To the contrary, "grok" means "to understand fully".  From the Jargon
file: 

GROK (grok) [from the novel "Stranger in a Strange Land", by Robert
   Heinlein, where it is a Martian verb meaning literally "to drink"
   and metaphorically "to be one with"] v. To understand, usually in a
   global sense. Connotes intimate and exhaustive knowledge.

-- 
Dave Sill (d...@ornl.gov)
Martin Marietta Energy Systems
Workstation Support

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References: <45094@apple.Apple.COM> <2288@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>

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From: d...@de5.ctd.ornl.gov (Dave Sill)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: Worst error messages of all time.
Message-ID: <1990Sep26.124934.9580@cs.utk.edu>
Date: 26 Sep 90 12:49:34 GMT
References: <45094@apple.Apple.COM> <2288@opus.cs.mcgill.ca>
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Reply-To: Dave Sill <d...@ornl.gov>
Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory
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Posted: Wed Sep 26 13:49:34 1990
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