3 ms·

Hee hee, I'm a fan of #8: 8. Heisenbug Source: Unknown A computer bug that disappears or alters its characteristics when an attempt is made to study it. On th

Hee hee, I'm a fan of #8: 8. Heisenbug Source: Unknown A computer bug that disappears or alters its characteristics when an attempt is made to study it. On the other note - I personally think most online communities tend to get more lenient overtime. I'd be interested in any further reading on that matter.

kleevr 14y ago
Ran into one of these about a month ago. I was working with some sketch PHP that was resulting in a seg fault, when I attached xdebug and stepped through the code, it ran fine.
thaumaturgy 14y ago
"Heisenbug" as a term has been around for a while. It's one of my favorites, too -- despite referring to possibly my least favorite part of programming. Timing-related errors make the worst heisenbugs. I had one once where pausing through the code caused the code to work, so I cobbled together a quick debug logging facility for it, and that still caused the code to work just fine. Anything that altered the code by more than a few milliseconds of execution time caused it to work OK. I stared at it for a while and then rewrote the entire block in disgust.
- freditup 14y ago
  I hadn't heard it before, but it's a great term! I know one multiplayer Flash service has a problem where their server clocks had drifted apart, and it caused all sorts of crazy issues. Took them a couple of weeks to figure it out and fix the problem. Not quite a Heisenbug maybe, but close. (http://playerio.com/forum/multiplayer/room-disappears-from-list-while-still-active-t33960 http://playerio.com/forum/multiplayer/room-disappears-from-l...) I've had bugs before that have seemed to come and go for absolutely no reason - I think they involved corrupted incremental compilations, but who knows.
4ad 14y ago
Cute name, but inaccurate. The property of things changing when you observe them is not the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, it's the observer effect. These often confused ideas are unrelated: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect_(physics)#Quantum_mechanics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect_(physics)#Quant... Rob Pike mentioned this: http://commandcenter.blogspot.ro/2010/08/know-your-science.html http://commandcenter.blogspot.ro/2010/08/know-your-science.h...

kleevr 14y ago

Ran into one of these about a month ago. I was working with some sketch PHP that was resulting in a seg fault, when I attached xdebug and stepped through the code, it ran fine.

thaumaturgy 14y ago

"Heisenbug" as a term has been around for a while. It's one of my favorites, too -- despite referring to possibly my least favorite part of programming. Timing-related errors make the worst heisenbugs. I had one once where pausing through the code caused the code to work, so I cobbled together a quick debug logging facility for it, and that still caused the code to work just fine. Anything that altered the code by more than a few milliseconds of execution time caused it to work OK. I stared at it for a while and then rewrote the entire block in disgust.

freditup 14y ago
I hadn't heard it before, but it's a great term! I know one multiplayer Flash service has a problem where their server clocks had drifted apart, and it caused all sorts of crazy issues. Took them a couple of weeks to figure it out and fix the problem. Not quite a Heisenbug maybe, but close. (http://playerio.com/forum/multiplayer/room-disappears-from-list-while-still-active-t33960 http://playerio.com/forum/multiplayer/room-disappears-from-l...) I've had bugs before that have seemed to come and go for absolutely no reason - I think they involved corrupted incremental compilations, but who knows.

4ad 14y ago

Cute name, but inaccurate. The property of things changing when you observe them is not the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, it's the observer effect. These often confused ideas are unrelated: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect_(physics)#Quantum_mechanics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect_(physics)#Quant... Rob Pike mentioned this: http://commandcenter.blogspot.ro/2010/08/know-your-science.html http://commandcenter.blogspot.ro/2010/08/know-your-science.h...