Why are Errors in Software Code Called “Bugs”?

One may think “bugs” is the term used by programmers and other software experts to describe software errors. However, the terms “software bug” and “computer bug” are also frequently used by both non-IT professionals and members of the general public.

The Definition of the Word

“In IT, a bug refers to an error, fault, or flaw in any computer program or a hardware system. A bug produces unexpected results or causes a system to behave unexpectedly. In short, it is any behavior or result that a program or system gets but it was not designed to do.”

How did the Term “Bug” Come to Refer to Software Errors?

You might have thought that the word “bug” was first used when Harvard faculty members working in the Computation Laboratory linked a Mark II computer error to a moth caught in a relay. This bug was painstakingly taken out and taped to the still-present logbook. Though this was the very first computer bug in the world that was recorded, the term “bug” has been around for a much longer time.

With the development of computers, the term “computer bug” has become common among IT professionals. The term “bug,” however, was first used to refer to a machine-related issue. Ada Lovelace first mentioned the concept of a technical malfunction in 1843 when she discussed potential issues with the program cards used in Charles Babbage’s analytical engine. According to her theory, the cards in the analytical engine may issue incorrect orders as a result of insufficient operational information. She never referred to it as a bug, but Thomas Edison did.

The term was first used to refer to a flaw or malfunction in a machine by Thomas Edison; however, it was not “the” computer bug. In actuality, the term has been widely used in the phone industry for a long time. According to an urban legend, the term was created as a result of a telephone noise that resembled a cockroach. Well, that doesn’t seem entirely believable now, does it?

How did the Term “Computer Bug” Come About?

Long before computers and software were even considered, the word “bug” was frequently used to refer to mistakes or flaws in mechanical systems. However, the actual justification for the term’s first use is vague, to say the least, though it may have originated in early English parlance.

Some people speculate that it might have come from the Middle English word “bugge,” which is the root of the words “bugbear” and “bugaboo.” In this sense, the word “bug” is related to words like “goblin” and “gremlin,” which are also frequently used to describe mysterious mechanical malfunctions. Gremlin was first used by RAF pilots during World War II. Its meaning is much more akin to the word “gremlin,” where engineers frequently began to suspect that nefarious spooks were to blame for issues with engineering prototypes.

So, the word “bug” or “bogey” component can be traced back to the 15^th century, when it meant “Hobgoblin,” “devil,” or “ghost.” It is still common to refer to issues with machinery as with Bugbear, which first appeared in the 16^th century in East Anglia. The term “bugbear” apparently has absolutely nothing to do with insects; it refers to a malevolent spirit.

Regardless of its origin, in the mid-1800s, it became a popular term for mechanical faults whose causes have not yet been found or isolated and corrected. The term “bug” became widely used in engineering jargon after this point. As we’ve seen, the term was widely used by engineers throughout the late 1800s, and it only seems to have become popular around the turn of the century.

“Bug” is a common word among software professionals. Also known as defects, a bug simply means the software isn’t behaving as expected. The word bug is used quite liberally to refer to both the symptom and the cause. 

In proper terms, a bug is really a human error that produces a defect that causes a fault in the operation of the software, resulting in a malfunction that causes some sort of damage. Unfortunately, most software defects cause damages that are far worse: loss of time and nerve. Sometimes, the same sequence of actions can result in a malfunction for one user but not the other. Software folks often call these “random bugs”. In reality, there are no random bugs. The effect (the occurrence of the fault) may be random, but the cause (the error in the code) is always there: the malfunction is happening for a reason.

Misunderstanding Is a More Complex Form of Human Error

The developer makes the code behave exactly as they wanted; with no mistakes. Instead, the developer misunderstands how the software should behave. We have all done it: read instructions, believe you do exactly as instructed, just to realize later that you misunderstood the instruction.

Software developers’ instructions are known as “requirements”. Requirements are plain English descriptions of how the software should behave. Such misunderstandings tend to get expensive. They are typically found in the later testing stages and testers often fail to spot them, too. Oftentimes, the error is surprisingly in the requirement itself. It is not uncommon for a developer to implement a requirement exactly as it was described and find out later that the software does not behave as the real users would have expected. This is still an error but not a programming error.

What Are Software Errors?

So, what are software errors? Software errors are flaws that result in an inaccurate or unexpected outcome from a computer program or system or cause it to act in ways that were not intended. They are any mismatches between the software and its requirement specification. 

In other words, when the program or application doesn’t perform according to user expectations, we say that there’s an error in the software.

Software developers are people and so they are prone to making mistakes too. Software errors can occur due to time or resource constraints, developer inefficiency, or simply an invalid input. Most of the errors are found and fixed during the testing phase. However, it is close to impossible to make software 100% error free due to time & resource constraints. 

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