What does bug mean?

Answer 1

As a noun, "bugs" is the plural of "bug". It means small insects. Informally, "bug" can be some type of virus (stomach bug) or a glitch in a computer program.

As a verb, "bugs" is the third person singular conjugation of "to bug" (bother) or to install a listening device (they bugged the phone).

Answer 2

A bug in computer talk is an unintentional oversight, a mistake, in the code. Originally, the name came from a literal bug (a moth) getting stuck between some electrical contacts. When the bug was removed, the program worked as intended. However, in modern use, a bug is often a typo or bad logic used in the code.

Examples software bugs.

1. Off by one. For instance, If you use an 8-bit register or area of memory, you can only have a ranges or 0 to 255. However, suppose your code is off by one in an operation. One possibility is that the program will crash with an overflow error.

2. Using the wrong Boolean or numeric operator. You might use "less than" when you mean "less than or equal." Or you may interchange AND and OR.

3. Access after free. If you release a block of memory a program is using, you are not supposed to keep using it. Some other code could be using it. If you read after releasing the block, the data cannot be trusted, since sometime might have modified it. If you write after releasing the block, you could be corrupting what is used elsewhere.

4. Buffer overrun. That is when a memory operation writes more data to a memory location than declared, and puts data past just the location you are modifying. So it ends up corrupting other data or even the program itself, another program, or the operating system. That will certainly lock up the computer with a blue screen.

Answer 3

A bug (noun) is an insect. To bug (verb) is slang for bothering or annoying someone.