Living in this modern era and having surrounded by computers make us no stranger to software bugs or errors. We surely experienced these at least once. Indeed, it hinders our productivity, especially if it is a major bug / error.
Techopedia defines software bugs as “a problem causing a program to crash or produce invalid output. The problem is caused by insufficient or erroneous logic. A bug can be an error, mistake, defect or fault, which may cause failure or deviation from expected results. Most bugs are due to human errors in source code or its design. A program is said to be buggy when it contains a large number of bugs, which affect program functionality and cause incorrect results.”
Here are the common software bugs / errors you should know about.
1. Crash
Crash is probably the most common. It happens when a software application suddenly fails because of the failure of handling exceptions. It could also happen to the operating system of a hardware device like a hard disk or to a program. It forces itself to shut down making it dysfunctional for a moment.
2. Functional Error
Software is meant to function or do its specific job, but when it starts behaving in a different manner, this problem is called functional error. For example, the Enter Button is meant to save all the changes, but it didn’t, then it is an example of a functional error.
3. Acknowledgment Message Error
Most activities in the system must have a response from the computer. These are mostly acknowledgment messages. If it fails to deliver the right feedback or not at all, this is an acknowledgment message error.
4. Missing Command Error
Every activity has a command and options to do so. If the user expects to have a particular command but does not find it, it is obviously a missing command. For example; a missing add to cart order button in an online shop.
5. Calculation Error
Mathematics and logic are no stranger to computers. Calculations are crucial so everything will run smoothly. If there’s a calculation error, we’ll never know how much is at stake. Just look at what happened with NASA in 1999. Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in the Martian atmosphere because of the failure to convert units from English to Metric.
6. Syntactic Error
Syntactic Error is very evident while testing software GUI. These are misspelled words or grammatically incorrect sentences.
7. Error Handling Error
Even the computer is capable of not knowing things. If the software failed but failed to determine what failed and just settle with the message “Something bad” that is error handling error.
8. Hardware Usage Error
Hardware Usage Error occurs when the software is used in the wrong device. It is most commonly caused by the wrong operating system, too low computing power or mismatched device. It is important that hardware is matched by software in order to function. Remember when you used a printer not compatible with the software of your computer?
9. Control Flow Error
Control flow, from the words itself, tell us what should be the next task or command. If it fails to proceed in the right flow, it is safe to assume that it is a control flow error. Example: After checking out a product, it didn’t proceed to the payment mode page.
Software errors / bugs are so common. It happens almost every day. These are sometimes dangerous and can deal a lot of damage (for example company productivity) but it must be treated with proper attention so it won’t hinder the day-to-day business operations.