Software Bug

The earliest computers contained electromechanical relays for switches. One day a computer started malfunctioning. A lady working on it was asked to troubleshoot. She went behind the huge computer and started to search for the cause. What she found was that some insect had got stuck between the moving and fixed contacts of one of the relays. She removed it and cleaned the contacts and the computer started working again.

When she emerged from the back of the computer, someone asked her what had happened. She said, “I found a bug”

This was how the word bug acquired the meaning of an error in computer hardware or software. Then it also gave rise to words such as debugging, debugger (ouch!), etc.

This is the broad outline of a story and the details I have given may be wrong but the essence remains.

Why this story now? A friend of mine has given a new meaning to the term software bug.

The social behaviour of many ‘software people’ irritates a lot of non-software or 'normal' people. It bugs them. So – “software bug”.

Note: I myself am one among the ‘software people’ as I work in a software company, even though I do not take any part in the software creation process. So, if this post bugs you, I am a software bug!