cough and die
<jargon> barf. Connotes that the program is throwing its hands up by
design rather than because of a bug or oversight. "The parser saw a control-A in
its input where it was looking for a printable, so it coughed and died."
Compare die, die horribly, scream and die.
[Jargon File]
(1995-03-07)
Nearby terms:
Cost/Schedule Control System Criteria « COTS « Cougar «
cough and die » countable » countably many » counted
