Software bug: Difference between revisions

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A '''computer bug''' is a fault in a [[computer program]] which prevents it from working correctly. Bugs arise either from mistakes in the [[source code]] of a computer program, or from faulty software design. The term derives from hardware engineering jargon, in which hardware errors are referred to as "bugs". The term is often (but erroneously) credited to [[Grace Hopper]], through an anecdote where she determined the reason for a malfunction on an early electromechanical computer was an [[bug|actual insect]] stuck between the contacts of the [[relay]]s that drove the device.

:In 1946, when Hopper was released from active duty, she joined the Harvard

Faculty at the Computation Laboratory where she continued her work on the

Mark II and Mark III. She traced an error in the Mark II to a moth trapped

in a relay, coining the term bug. This bug was carefully removed

and taped to the log book. Stemming from the first bug, today we

call errors or glitch's in a program a bug. [http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Hopper.Danis.html]

There are bugs in all useful computer programs. However, well-written programs contain relatively few bugs, and these bugs typically do not prevent the program from performing its task. In contrast, "buggy" programs contain many bugs and/or bugs which interfere with the program's functionality.