The Perfect Program (fwd)

Todd E. Van Hoosear ((no email)) Sat, 16 Oct 1993 20:48:28 -36803936 (EDT) 


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Subject: The Perfect Program


Date: Mon, 3 May 1993 19:28:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Todd E. Van Hoosear" <todd@cl-next4.cl.msu.edu>
Subject: The Perfect Program
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                     - The Perfect Program -
                           by L. Davis


(Taken from the vol. 5, no. 2 issue of ACRONYMS, the newsletter of the
Michigan State University Computer Laboratory.  Reprinted from the
University of GeorgiaUs _Bulldog Byte_.)


"No program's that perfect,"
They said with a shrug.
"The client is happy--
What's one little bug?"


But he was determined.
The others went home.
He dug out the flow chart,
Deserted, alone.


Night passed into morning.
The room was cluttered
With memory dumps, punch cards,
"I'm close," he muttered.


Chain smoking, cold coffee,
Logic, deduction.
"I've got it," he cried,
"Just change one instruction!"


Then change two, then three more.
As year followed year,
And strangers would comment,
"Is that guy still here?"


He died at the console
Of hunger and thirst.
Next day he was buried
Face down, nine edge first.


And his wife, through her tears,
Accepting his fate,
Said, "He's not really gone--
He's just working late."




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    Todd E. Van Hoosear                         todd@cl-next4.cl.msu.edu
    "You only live once, so live under as many false names as possible."
        ---Dana McManus
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