Article: 40054 of alt.folklore.computers Sender: cstacy@BONK Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Amusing Error Messages (Was: Weird Programming Language) References: <3E480576.B761E0A0@alum.mit.edu> <100220032315439869%newsreply1@erstesoft.com> <3E49AC82.83D85B03@gazonk.del> <3E594073.1040507@comcast.net> From: cstacy@dtpq.com (Christopher C. Stacy) Message-ID: Lines: 18 User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.2 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 06:11:29 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 68.160.161.205 X-Complaints-To: abuse@verizon.net X-Trace: nwrddc02.gnilink.net 1046067089 68.160.161.205 (Mon, 24 Feb 2003 01:11:29 EST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 01:11:29 EST Path: news.meer.net!sea-read.news.verio.net!dfw-artgen!iad-peer.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!c03.atl99!rip!news.webusenet.com!cox.net!cyclone1.gnilink.net!spamkiller.gnilink.net!nwrddc02.gnilink.net.POSTED!53ab2750!not-for-mail Xref: archive.mv.meer.net alt.folklore.computers:40054 I liked this error message that you could get from HP2000 Timesharing Basic: PROGRAM BAD I never knew exactly how you could that error, but it was documented as existing. (I think it might have had something to do with parity checking your image before attempting to run it through the byte code interpreter.) Back around 1975 I wrote a simulator for the system that allowed you to log in, enter programs, and execute certain commands. This simulator would be left running in order to capture the password of the unsuspecting high school computer science teacher. In response to the RUN command, I had it give PROGRAM BAD. I seem to recall that there was also a handy control sequence you could send to the ASR 33 to cause it to power down, and this happened after a while in the simulator to make it seem as though the system had crashed and hung up on you. Or maybe it worked by forcing the system to hang up on you; don't remember.