Posted by Ben C on 04/26/07 07:12

On 2007-04-26, dorayme <doraymeRidThis@optusnet.com.au> wrote:
> In article <f0o39r$5hb$1@aioe.org>,
> Andrey Tarasevich <andreytarasevich@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> But of course bugs don't have to follow any logic...
>
> This is a tricky question. At the level of computer programming
> and unexpected side effects on the machine, there is very likely
> a logic in the sense of a deterministic algorithm: sets of
> circumstances, which if repeated, will trigger the effect. The
> bug label is due to its unwanted effect and often to its hidden
> causal paths.
>
> It is not out of the question that some things happen as
> surprising unintended effects in other than this algorithmic way,
> as an instability that is sensitive to all sorts of dynamical
> processes, so special appearing, that it falls outside the usual
> deterministic causal chains that earthlings understand.

That's true, but the distinction is usually between a bug and a
non-conformance. IE taking width to mean outer margin width (or whatever
it does take it to mean) is often called a bug even though it's
obviously intentional. There is still some logic to it, it's just not
what the spec says.

Usually you just call it a bug if it's something that ought to get
fixed, whether it's a correct implementation of the wrong thing or a
wrong attempt at the right thing.

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