I still don't understand how that message escaped being fixed. It wasn't rare. I would estimate a regular computer user would see it monthly? Maybe more?
And, they couldn't easily fix anything post-release, right?
(This also makes the original Macintosh interface all the more impressive in my eyes. System 1 is a masterpiece.)
Might have to do with why nowadays Windows 10 blue screens show a sideways ":(" smiley instead of a face despite being in graphics mode.
Back when i first encountered smileys (and that was at the cover of an "internet magazine" - i was already into computers and programming for years at the time and even used the internet and IRC) i didn't understood what they were, i thought they were some sort of code like the :// or @ in addresses.
My guess is that whoever added that sideways smiley is as blind to how it looks to people who don't know about them as whoever who wrote "illegal" was to people back in Win95 times.
> "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down."
At first, I laughed.
Then I realized, I think I remember seeing this error message when I was six years old, and being freaked out.