Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!batcomputer!itsgw!steinmetz!uunet!vsi!friedl
From: friedl@vsi.COM (Stephen J. Friedl)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Looking for Computer Folklore
Summary: Comments in code
Message-ID: <1051@vsi.COM>
Date: 12 Feb 89 07:55:37 GMT
References: <7143@pyr.gatech.EDU> <532@geovision.UUCP> <4575@tekgvs.GVS.TEK.COM> <20373@coherent.com>
Organization: V-Systems, Inc. -- Santa Ana, CA
Lines: 59

In article <20373@coherent.com>, dplatt@coherent.com (Dave Platt) writes:
> Another subclass of computer folklore is the occasional barbed comment
> that one can find when reading through source code.

I've got three:

The 3B2 defines a couple of magic numbers used by the firmware
to keep track of system state.  <sys/firmware.h> defines some
of them to be:

#define FATAL 0xFEEDBEEFL   /* fatal error, reset system */
#define VECTOR 0xA11C0DEDL  /* reset goes to rst_handler */
#define REBOOT 0x8BADF00DL  /* reboot w/o diags for UN*X */
#define REENTRY 0xADEBAC1EL /* reenter fw from a reset w/o failure mesage */

---------

In the source to `mk' (a better `make', available from the
AT&T Toolchest), there is a define for the mechanism used to
mark certain characters in a char array as special:

#define		EBIT		0x80 	/* sorry japan */

It's left as an exercise to the reader to determine why this is funny.

--------

Finally, us old Gosmacs hackers will recognize the pseudo-famous
comment in display.c by James Gosling, then at CMU:

/****************************************************************

	    [ large, cool skull-and-crossbones pix deleted ]

			    **************
			    *  BEWARE!!  *
			    **************

			All ye who enter here:
		    Most of the code in this module
		       is twisted beyond belief!

			   Tread carefully.

		    If you think you understand it,
			      You Don't,
			    So Look Again.

 ****************************************************************/

He was not kidding.  Really.

     Steve

-- 
Stephen J. Friedl        3B2-kind-of-guy            friedl@vsi.com
V-Systems, Inc.       I speak for you only      attmail!vsi!friedl
Santa Ana, CA  USA       +1 714 545 6442    {backbones}!vsi!friedl
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