This is inspired by the references to the "dictator programmer" in the OT: The mythical man month - have we learned nothing? thread.

What is the most egregious, dumbest programming error of which you've heard?

To keep this from getting too far afield, you or the person from whom you heard the story must have direct personal knowledge -- as in s?he was the project manager or at least heard the project manager's shrieks of rage as the problem was discovered.

My anecdote is the programmer who completed a project, which was to be (eventually) used on a CDC computer, in IBM assembly language.

Incidentally, the "Venus probe crashes due to missing comma in FORTRAN DO statement" can't be used; it didn't happen, at least not in FORTRAN. NASA didn't use FORTRAN to program the computers in its space probes.

emc

" When in doubt, use brute force." — Ken Thompson

Edit: g0n - moved to Meditations from SoPW

In reply to OT: most egregious programming error, ever by swampyankee

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