Over my 3 decades of employment, consulting, and personal exploration in the world of computers, I had my hands in many products, processes, and products, some of which survived and became useful tools; others were OBE (overtaken by events) and became lessons maybe learned for the next try. I don’t count any of them as part of my Legacy.
What I do claim — proudly — I did not recognize at first. The simple phrase “It’s not a bug; it’s a feature,” was my pre-emptive defense, as a maintenance programmer, to an assignment to “fix the bugs in this”. I had to set boundaries on management’s expectations.
It worked. And I used it over the course of my career. Only 50+ years later did I pick up on it having become a feature in itself in many hands, and I belatedly laid claim to it. Like any good tool, it proved itself useful by being used, over and over again, without the user needing to cite an authority for its truth.
This is my story.
Undocumented feature article in Wikipedia notes my use of bug and feature at DEC ca. 1970.
It’s not a bug; it’s a feature article in Wikipedia notes my work on FOCAL-8 ca. 1972.
On Khalila RedBird’s Substack, It’s a feature; not a bug. 6 August 2024. My first public, supported claim to initiating use of the distinction.
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