{"id":1276,"date":"2025-05-30T10:17:38","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T10:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/proged\/?p=1276"},"modified":"2025-05-30T10:17:38","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T10:17:38","slug":"why-is-a-bug-called-a-bug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/proged\/2025\/05\/30\/why-is-a-bug-called-a-bug\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is a bug called a bug?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is extracted from a side note in the book Objects First with Java, 7th edition<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Image

The “First computer bug”. Source: Smithsonian National Museum of American History<\/p><\/div>\n

Errors in computer programs are commonly known as \u201cbugs.\u201d Thus, programs that help in the removal of errors are known as \u201cdebuggers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The origin of the term is interesting, and often mis-attributed. There is a famous case of what is often referred to as \u201cthe first computer bug\u201d\u2014a real bug (a moth, in fact)\u2014which was found inside the Mark II computer by Grace Murray Hopper, an early computing pioneer, in 1945. A logbook still exists in the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institute that shows an entry with this moth taped into the book and the remark \u201cFirst actual case of bug being found\u201d (see the image above).<\/p>\n

\u00adLong before this, however, Thomas Edison referred to faults in his inventions as \u201cbugs\u201d. The story goes that this, too, goes back to an actual insect crawling around in his electronics. Whether this story is strictly true or not is unknown. However, it is documented that he regularly referred to faults in his machines as \u201cbugs\u201d in his writings from the 1870s onwards, and probably coined the term.<\/p>\n

\"Picture

Thomas Edison with a phonograph. Source: Wikimedia, public domain<\/p><\/div>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is extracted from a side note in the book Objects First with Java, 7th edition.   Errors in computer programs are commonly known as \u201cbugs.\u201d Thus, programs that help in the removal of errors are known as \u201cdebuggers.\u201d … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous","category-programming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/proged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/proged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/proged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/proged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/proged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1276"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/proged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1281,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/proged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions\/1281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/proged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/proged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/proged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}