5 ms·

It's very common in gaming circles (not game dev afaik, just ppl who play games). I found it weird wording too, at first; it seemed like a euphemism for 'bug' t

by roel_v 5y ago

It's very common in gaming circles (not game dev afaik, just ppl who play games). I found it weird wording too, at first; it seemed like a euphemism for 'bug' to me, but I think I now have a more nuanced understanding. I think a 'glitch' (to people outside the software industry) is something that makes software behave in strange or 'wrong', unintended ways, but not crash or give straight up gibberish results. Like, a game crashing is a 'bug' but a character being transported across the map is a 'glitch'. Likewise, if software rounds bank transfers to the nearest thousand $ and loses the remainder, but only on Thursdays when there is an 'r' in the month, then that's a glitch; but when the software doesn't open that's a 'bug' (or rather, 'it doesn't work'). It's an inconsequential difference from a software engineering pov, but in my experience it's major to outsiders, to the point where they start looking for workarounds for 'glitches' or explain things away, but throw their hands up at the first sign of a 'doesn't work'. I don't understand the thinking, but at least trying to understand users in similar circumstances has made me realize that there are things where I just can't understand someone else's point of view, in which case I need to switch problem solving or design methods; because no matter how hard I try, my 'how is that not obvious' approach isn't going to work.

watt 5y ago
It's funny how the weird behavior is a "glitch" until you narrow down exact circumstances when it occurs and then if the issue can be reproduced reliably, then it's a straight-up bug.
ghaff 5y ago
Yes, I think the implication is that there's some sort of weird, inconsistent behavior. (Which is consistent with something like voltage transients that are mentioned in the article.)
Agentlien 5y ago
As a game developer I can confirm that not only is your description of what constitutes a glitch accurate, we use it that way in game development as well. I'm a graphics programmer who previously used to work with UI and we often use the word glitch to refer to animation hiccups, graphics issues due to corrupted render buffers, etc. In the Need For Speed games from Ghost, we had a visual effect of disturbances running across the screen which was shown when you were hit by an EMP or seriously damaged[0]. We sometimes referred to that visual effect internally as the "glitch shader". edit: look at the UI elements: speedometer, mini map, etc. [0] https://youtu.be/qE4fgixKLpE?t=387 https://youtu.be/qE4fgixKLpE?t=387
dkarl 5y ago
I think "glitch" is a word we apply to software that we rely on but can't fix, software that we cope with like we cope with the weather.
hypertele-Xii 5y ago
A glitch is unintended program behavior. The cause is undefined. It could be a programmer mistake, a content creator oversight (holes in 3D geometry, etc.), hardware failure, or a random cosmic ray causing one-shot disruption. A bug is unintended program behavior generally caused by programmer mistake specifically. Bug is a specific case of glitch. Then there's also error, which is a glitch the computer itself is aware of. An exploit is a glitch that can be used to gain unfair advantage.
agallant 5y ago
I've also seen similar usage of glitch versus bug, and think it's a useful distinction. But I'd say that actually it can be consequential from an engineering perspective, and can even run counter to the outsider intuition - that is, "doesn't work at all" is usually easy to diagnose and often not that hard to fix (e.g. "we just need to update the cert/restart the db/etc."), while "weird every-other-Thursday glitch" is harder to pin down and usually more intertwined with system logic ("why does our videogame physics system cause characters to float but only on levels 3 and 7?"). Basically, "complicated system doesn't work" is often a less intricate problem than "complicated system almost works." The perception may be opposite because it seems like more work to fix something that is "more broken", but that's the same logic as LOC as a good productivity metric. As with all things, there are exceptions, but I'd say the tendency is that glitches are harder to fix than bugs.
gok2 5y ago
Hey I got an unrelated question for you. Can you email: g at colonist.io

by roel_v 5y ago

watt 5y ago

It's funny how the weird behavior is a "glitch" until you narrow down exact circumstances when it occurs and then if the issue can be reproduced reliably, then it's a straight-up bug.

ghaff 5y ago

Yes, I think the implication is that there's some sort of weird, inconsistent behavior. (Which is consistent with something like voltage transients that are mentioned in the article.)

Agentlien 5y ago

As a game developer I can confirm that not only is your description of what constitutes a glitch accurate, we use it that way in game development as well. I'm a graphics programmer who previously used to work with UI and we often use the word glitch to refer to animation hiccups, graphics issues due to corrupted render buffers, etc. In the Need For Speed games from Ghost, we had a visual effect of disturbances running across the screen which was shown when you were hit by an EMP or seriously damaged[0]. We sometimes referred to that visual effect internally as the "glitch shader". edit: look at the UI elements: speedometer, mini map, etc. [0] https://youtu.be/qE4fgixKLpE?t=387 https://youtu.be/qE4fgixKLpE?t=387

dkarl 5y ago

I think "glitch" is a word we apply to software that we rely on but can't fix, software that we cope with like we cope with the weather.

hypertele-Xii 5y ago

A glitch is unintended program behavior. The cause is undefined. It could be a programmer mistake, a content creator oversight (holes in 3D geometry, etc.), hardware failure, or a random cosmic ray causing one-shot disruption. A bug is unintended program behavior generally caused by programmer mistake specifically. Bug is a specific case of glitch. Then there's also error, which is a glitch the computer itself is aware of. An exploit is a glitch that can be used to gain unfair advantage.

agallant 5y ago

I've also seen similar usage of glitch versus bug, and think it's a useful distinction. But I'd say that actually it can be consequential from an engineering perspective, and can even run counter to the outsider intuition - that is, "doesn't work at all" is usually easy to diagnose and often not that hard to fix (e.g. "we just need to update the cert/restart the db/etc."), while "weird every-other-Thursday glitch" is harder to pin down and usually more intertwined with system logic ("why does our videogame physics system cause characters to float but only on levels 3 and 7?"). Basically, "complicated system doesn't work" is often a less intricate problem than "complicated system almost works." The perception may be opposite because it seems like more work to fix something that is "more broken", but that's the same logic as LOC as a good productivity metric. As with all things, there are exceptions, but I'd say the tendency is that glitches are harder to fix than bugs.

gok2 5y ago

Hey I got an unrelated question for you. Can you email: g at colonist.io