A gallery of goofy error messages

by Toni Bowers  |  November 15, 2011, 1:05pm PST  |  Image 27 of 53

Fatal error

"PDP-11 COBOL: In those days, Column 1 in your program was reserved for forms control. This was a vestige of punched cards and drum printers. Something like "DATA-DIVISION" was supposed to be entered ' DATA-DIVISION.'  With column 1 eaten up for forms control, this was interpreted as "ATA-DIVISION" (at least there was no such line in COBOL as "MASS-STORAGE"! :o ) Miss that and you get endless messages: 'Fatal error, abandoning compilation'."

Fatal error - Image 27 of 53

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Toni Bowers

About Toni Bowers

Toni Bowers is the Head Blogs Editor of TechRepublic and is the award-winning blogger of the Career Management blog. She has edited newsletters, books, and web sites pertaining to software, IT career, and IT management issues.

Toni Bowers

Toni Bowers
Toni Bowers is the Head Blogs Editor of TechRepublic and is the award-winning blogger of the Career Management blog. She has edited newsletters, books, and web sites pertaining to software, IT career, and IT management issues.
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