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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!floyd!clyde!ihnp4!ihuxq!ken
From: ken@ihuxq.UUCP (ken perlow)
Newsgroups: net.jokes
Subject: error messages--snark
Message-ID: <352@ihuxq.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Oct-83 14:01:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihuxq.352
Posted: Thu Oct 13 14:01:48 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 14-Oct-83 07:32:04 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il
Lines: 17

my favorite informative error message came from a U of Wis 11/70 Modula
compiler:
              varlist in parmdecls is nil--snark!

as to the etymology of "snark", i recall a verse (probably L. Carroll)

              Then the bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes,
              A thing, as the bellman remarked,
              That frequently happens in tropical climes
              When a vessel is, so to speak, snarked.

(if anyone knows the whole thing or definite authorship, let me know.)
-- 

ken perlow
..ihnp4!ihuxq!ken
bell labs @ naperville, IL