
Many terms commonly used in computer programming originated with Mark I - kurren
http://sites.harvard.edu/~chsi/markone/language.html
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eridius
This article lists 4 terms that it says originated with Mark I. But 3 of those
terms were used in the Mark I because they already meant the correct thing.
The only term to get effectively a new definition when applied to computers is
"bug". So it seems kind of weird to say that e.g. "loop" originated with the
Mark I when the definition of the word didn't change.

In fact this kind of brings to mind patents. "ordinary thing, done by a
computer" is not particularly significant, neither in terminology nor
patentable ideas.

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xapata
That's one of those things that sounds right only in hindsight.

Without the paper tape metaphor, the control flow for repetition might have
been called "repeat" or "iterate". The word "loop" is nice and short, but it's
an odd thing to say without the physical clue. The word didn't come up in my
mathematical proofs class.

Instead of "patch" we probably would have said "fix" (we still sometimes do).

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eridius
The control flow for repetition is in fact called "repeat" in some languages.
I don't think the word "loop" stuck around because the metaphor of paper tapes
is particularly compelling (especially since we stopped using those a long
time ago), I think it stuck around because it's a good _short_ word that means
the right thing. And, for example, it's pretty awkward to say something like
"a for repeat", but "a for loop" is nice and simple. We probably would have
ended up on this word even without paper tapes.

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xapata
Maybe, but the combination of "loop" and "break" makes a lot more sense if you
imagine physically breaking a loop of paper.

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tmsldd
Amazing to see how computer science imported these terms.. since it moved from
classical mechanics to electromagnetism, electronics and now to quantum
mechanics.. how the future will look like ? patterns, probabilities,
uncertainty, learning, self-organization... much likely all those terms are
going to disappear from the jargon .. a "bug" will have no meaning

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nonbel
Can anyone tell what these say:
[http://sites.harvard.edu/~chsi/markone/images/BugDrawings.jp...](http://sites.harvard.edu/~chsi/markone/images/BugDrawings.jpg)

I can only half-read it. I was trained in cursive, but have not used it in
years.

~~~
wefarrell
July 27 - table worm

July 28 - NRL (Naval research laboratory) bug. He who sends wrong data

July 26 - Kitchie Boo Boo Bug. He who goes around loosening relays

:) He who brings good data.

I found the result by googling the ones I could read, which led me to this
book:
[https://books.google.com/books?id=M3AwCYjYGKQC&pg=PA43&dq=%2...](https://books.google.com/books?id=M3AwCYjYGKQC&pg=PA43&dq=%22he+who+brings+good+data%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjt_6va4urRAhWC0YMKHYx_BRUQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%22he%20who%20brings%20good%20data%22&f=false)

