Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!lll-crg!styx!nike!cad!ucbvax!decvax!decwrl!glacier!mips!mash From: mash@mips.UUCP Newsgroups: net.lang.c Subject: Re: Throwing one away Message-ID: <491@mips.UUCP> Date: Mon, 2-Jun-86 02:19:17 EDT Article-I.D.: mips.491 Posted: Mon Jun 2 02:19:17 1986 Date-Received: Wed, 4-Jun-86 07:31:05 EDT References: <911@brl-smoke.ARPA> <3000079@uokvax.UUCP> Reply-To: mash@mips.UUCP (John Mashey) Organization: MIPS Computer Systems, Sunnyvale, CA Lines: 28 In article <3000079@uokvax.UUCP> emjej@uokvax.UUCP writes: > >/* Written 9:40 pm May 15, 1986 by Dave-Platt%LADC@HI-MULTICS.arpa in net.lang.c */ >I believe your "It has also been said..." can be attributed to Donald >Knuth; if I remember correctly, his original wording was "Plan on >throwing one away, because you will anyhow." >/* End of text from net.lang.c */ > >Doubtless a flood of corrections will appear, but...it was Fred Brooks, in >*The Mythical Man-Month*. "Plan on throwing one away, because you will >anyhow. The only question is whether you will deliver the throwaway to >your customers." is as near as I can reproduce it from memory. 1) The most famous reference is, of course, Fred Brooks. 2) However, I'd swear that Knuth, Volume 1, 1st Edition included an anecdote that one of the best projects he'd been involved with was so because all of the cards and listings accidentally got burned in the middle of the project. My Volume 1, 1st Edition disappeared long ago; all have is Volume 1, Edition 2, and I've not been able to find this story. a) Can anybody who has Edition 1 find this? b) If not, does anybody have a definitive answer for where this story comes from [like: in article such-and-such, author X attributes this story to Knuth.] -- -john mashey DISCLAIMER: UUCP: {decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!decwrl!mips!mash, DDD: 408-720-1700, x253 USPS: MIPS Computer Systems, 930 E. Arques, Sunnyvale, CA 94086