Why Is It Called a Bug When a Computer Program Crashes Unexpectedly?

Why Is It Called a Bug When a Computer Program Crashes Unexpectedly? thumbnail
The first physical computer bug was a moth.

Computer programmers spend a lot of time debugging software. Yet end users still encounter bugs. Computers bugs can result in many errors including unexpected program crashes.

  1. History

    Misconceptions

    • Grace Murray Hopper, a mathematician and computer programmer, is often wrongly credited with coining the term bug. During the 1940s, Hopper fixed a Mark II computer by removing a moth.

    Severity

    • While many computer bugs are simply annoying, other computer bugs can result in death. In November 2000, eight patients at the National Cancer Institute in Panama City died due to a computer bug. Because of this bug, the patients received twice the level of intended radiation.

Related Searches:

References

  • Photo Credit moth image by Colette MacDonald from Fotolia.com telegraph post image by Andrejs Skangals from Fotolia.com

Comments

You May Also Like

Related Ads

Featured