At mainframe shops, where the computers have operators for routine
administrivia, the programmers and hardware people tend to look down
on the operators and claim that a trained monkey could do their job.
It is frequently observed that the incentives that would be offered
said monkeys can be used as a scale to describe the difficulty of a
task. A one-banana problem is simple; hence, "It's only a one-banana
job at the most; what's taking them so long?" At IBM, folklore
divides the world into one-, two-, and three-banana problems. Other
cultures have different hierarchies and may divide them more finely;
at ICL, for example, five grapes (a bunch) equals a banana. Their
upper limit for the in-house {sysape}s is said to be two bananas and
three grapes (another source claims it's three bananas and one grape,
but observes "However, this is subject to local variations, cosmic
rays and ISO"). At a complication level any higher than that, one
asks the manufacturers to send someone around to check things.
See also {Infinite-Monkey Theorem}.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {banana problem}{Infinite-Monkey Theorem}{sysape}{tape monkey}]