[Info-vax] BASIC (and Horizon)

[Bob Eager]

On Tue, 30 Jan 2024 20:21:43 -0500, bill wrote:

> On 1/30/2024 7:16 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>> bill  <bill.gunshannon at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Many moons ago I had to try to fix a number of programs that crashed
>>> whenever run.  Back in those days a common method was to add
>>> statements to display variables during execution.  I had many cases
>>> where adding those statements made the program work.
>> 
>> Yes, this is a sign of a fandango on core.  In Fortran it is likely
>> exceeding array bounds or bad parameter passing, but in C the
>> possibilities to screw up with pointers are endless.
> 
> Bingo!!!
> 
> It was mostly Fortran but every once in a while some idiot would do it
> in COBOL, too.

We had a machine that ran FORTRAN for the physics department. One guy had 
a program that crashed the machine. As in, the microcode halted. That was 
an array bounds error.

Full story:

 http://www.bobeager.uk/anecdotes.html#hwhack