Never Ever More

Once upon a midnight dreary,
coffee cold and vision bleary,
coding spread across the bed sheets,
changing syntax as it cascaded,
all night sat there writing PASCAL,
having checked my final line,
I took the floppy from the drive.

Typing with a steady hand,
I then invoked the SAVE command,
but got instead a reprimand,
just below my execution,
appeared the cryptic communication,
"Abort, Retry, Ignore".

To remedy the sanitation,
the command I quickly reinstated,
in answer to my application,
DOS get even by merely stating,
"Abort, Retry, Ignore", and nevermore.

Is this some maniacal intrusion?
reaching for a system manual,
thumbing through for drive disruption,
all I saw was hapless jargon,
here were choices never spoken,
now decided, I must choose one,
Carefully, I weighed my options.

With fingers wet and trembling,
slowly toward the keyboard bending,
hoping for a solution pending,
praying all would be restored,
ultimately I pressed a key,
but on the screen what did I see?
my evil system reiterated,
"Abort, Retry, Ignore", and that was all,
I cried abuse towards the system,
believing this to be my saving.

I tried to catch the thing off-guard,
I pressed again, but twice as hard,
my system out to seek redemption,
the line upon the screen remaining,
now I typed with desperation,
now just trying combinations,
still there came the incantation,
“Abort, Retry, Ignore”, and nevermore,
now the line consumed the screen,
it looked as if the got deleted,

Now in state of ghostly fear,
by my own machine I had been thwarted,
getting up I turned away and paced across the floor again, and then I saw an awful sight,
a bolt and blinding flash of light,
a lightning bolt had brock the night,
shook and killed the power supply.
I saw the screen collapse and die,
"HOLY SHIT - my code", I cried,
I thought I heard a voice reply,
"You'll see your programme nevermore".

So here’s the morel of my story,
DOS will not hack multitasking,
cursed by ancient rule of function,
one device will it only run with,
disk and drive being seen as one,
changing disks may end your fun.

Should you receive this age old war cry,
revert the action of disk expulsion,
heed this or forever live with,
a computer with only one line of thinking,
“Abort, Retry, Ignore”, and nevermore!

I am the website administrator of the Wandle industrial museum (http://www.wandle.org). Established in 1983 by local people determined to ensure that the history of the valley was no longer neglected but enhanced awareness its heritage for the use and benefits of the community.