This is one of the poems published under the title “April Foolishness” in the April 1975
edition of Datamation, now available
at http://bitsavers.org/pdf/datamation/. The IBM connection is very
obvious, but it's interesting to compare with Unix core dumps.
On either side the printer lie
Fat stacks of paper six feet high
That stun the mind and blur the eye,
And lo! Still more comes streaming by,
A fresh SYSABEND dump.
Ye printer clackth merrily
"Compleccioun code is 043"
Alack! What can the matter be
That made SYSABEND dump?
My TCAM hath no MCP?
My data cannot OPENed be?
Consult my neighbourhood SE?
The devil take thy dam and thee,
Thou vile SYSABEND dump!
Assemble modules on the fly
And link for yet another try.
With SUPERZAP a patch apply,
This time THOU SHALT NOT DUMP!
. . .
On either side the printer lie
Fat stacks of paper twelve feet high
That blow the mind and blast the eye.
Gadzooks! How shrill yon varlet's cry
As sixteen megabytes go by
In yet another dump.
