Talk:List of software bugs

(article title)
(heading inserted in retrospect Rursus dixit. ( m bork3 !) 10:43, 7 August 2010 (UTC))

I propose renaming to List of software bugs and introducing the lead text: This is a selected list of software bugs.

"Notable" in the title is a bit redundant as it is a key WP policy anyway. The article is well referenced and is looking good! Marasmusine (talk) 15:30, 7 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I thought long and hard about that. If this was a 'List of software bugs' then there would be grounds for claiming that the list would always be (very!) incomplete and the majority of entries would be non-notable - and before you know it, a bunch of rabid deletionists would AfD it into oblivion.  By explicitly limiting it to notable bugs - those that have caused serious damage or loss of life, I am attempting to preserve the information it contains and to prevent it bloating out of control.  It may be possible to come up with a name such as "List of software bugs that caused loss of human life or more than ten million dollars worth of damage"...but the reason I didn't do that should be self-evident!


 * FYI: The information contained here comes mostly from the Software bug page where the original list was starting to look bloated and ugly - hence the relocation of that information here. Since all of the bugs listed here were indeed notable, there is no problem (except I ran out of time today!) with getting them all referenced adequately.  Indeed, one way I hope we can prevent listcruft in this case is to relentlessly prune unreferenced entries...but that'll have to wait until tomorrow when I get the remainder of the current entries referenced with modern cite-style.  SteveBaker (talk) 20:38, 7 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes, I suspect that, as with the "list of X video games" type articles, this list will require constant maintainance to keep out the "mundane" bugs. Still, it's on my watchlist now. Marasmusine (talk) 22:38, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

Free software
Can anybody tell my what is NPOV on these removed sourced statements?

Several free sofware bugs went famous, because of their relevancy to resolving of the market dominance of Microsoft Windows. --Kozuch (talk) 18:53, 15 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Bug #1 in Ubuntu : Non-free software is holding back innovation in the IT industry, restricting access to IT to a small part of the world's population and limiting the ability of software developers to reach their full potential, globally. This bug is widely evident in the PC industry.
 * Wine Bug 10000 : Microsoft has a majority market share in the new desktop PC marketplace. A lot of software depends on the win32 api, so wine should eventually have to be the most popular implementation of it.


 * Those are not software bugs - they are business practice issues. They simply do not belong in this list - whether sourced or not. SteveBaker (talk) 19:08, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Other bugs
Should Federal prison inmate accidentally released due to computer glitch be added? Brianegge (talk) 01:02, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

I heard about this on NPR, maybe a year or more ago: Los Angeles School District ERP Snarls Teacher Pay Should it be added? SlowJog (talk) 00:07, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

F-22 Software Bug
I think this should be added to "Military" section.

A group of F-22s heading across the Pacific for exercises in Japan on Feb 11, 2007 suffered simultaneous total nav-console crashes as their longitude shifted from 180 degrees West to 180 East.

Does anybody have reliable sources for this? People mention a CNN interview with Retired Air Force General Don Shepperd and some Post-incidental Report, but I can't find them on the Web. Konstantin Veretennicov (talk) 08:09, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

Not Bugs
At present time, there are several items in this list that are arguably not bugs. They are either design flaws and/or user errors. For example, Lockheed Martin's transmission of imperial units instead of metric. Also, a mis-sent command from Earth to Mars Global Surveyor. There are others as well. I think these should be removed as they are not software bugs. 70.105.4.100 (talk) 01:47, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Also despite the name, the Y2K bug is not really a bug. It was a design feature that caused a problem as the century value changed. It's no more of a bug than not preparing for five-digit or six-digit years is a bug now. --Walter Görlitz (talk) 18:20, 10 May 2010 (UTC)


 * What constitutes a "bug" is obviously unclear. By my terminology (and the one in Software bug I can very well implement a bug by making a design error, an uninformed design omission, or creating/misusing technical or scientific information. The cause is then not so much flawed input nor a flawed computer where I implement the program, but instead a flawed thought from myself "correctly" implemented (CICO - crap in crap out). The flaw occurs nearer my brain, than the bits and bytes, but the result is as undesired as when it have occurred in the computer itself. Rursus dixit. ( m bork3 !) 10:52, 7 August 2010 (UTC)


 * Walter, five-digit number are very, very far ahead, and even in 9999 and 10000 won't be a real problem, as after 10000 it still will be very clear that some born in "9900" is not a baby, but an old one. Of course, "simple" calcualtion may lead to errors, as it does when calculating "12 - 84" (2012-1984), but interpretation of the result for daily business use (whatever that will mean in 8000 years) will be easy. That types of computers will be totally different, a yes, then, NO program from today will be used then, museums excluded.--Mideal (talk) 13:25, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

Mariner 1 and FORTRAN
NASA Mariner 1 went off-course during launch, due to a missing overbar in the specifications for its FORTRAN software (July 22, 1962).[1] Note that the initial reporting of this software bug was incorrect (another bug).

A careless reading of the above could could leave the impression that the overbar was missing from the FORTRAN source code. It wasn't, as an overbar wasn't part of the FORTRAN character set. Also, from reading the article about that incident, it appears the overbar was originally present. It was omitted or not noticed somewhere between that specification and coding. When isn't clear.

Also, this article is about software bugs. Although the initial reporting was incorrect, how did this result in an additional software bug?

My suggestion:

A booster went off course during launch, resulting in the destruction of NASA Mariner 1. This was the result of the failure of a transcriber to notice an overbar in a handwritten specification for the guidance program, resulting in the coding of an incorrect formula.

Any other thoughts? 206.53.197.24 (talk) 16:11, 16 February 2009 (UTC)

It's a very fine line between an error in the specifications and an error in the actual code. One presumes that the over-bar was representing a vector quantity rather than a scalar as must instead have been coded. But such a specificational error ought to have been found during testing - and that failure (IMHO) makes it a software bug. I like your version though. SteveBaker (talk) 04:51, 17 February 2009 (UTC)


 * I agree that a software bug caused the destruction of Mariner 1. I meant that the error in reporting the cause was not a software bug. 206.53.197.24 (talk) 15:23, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

180th meridian/IDL
180th meridian of longitude is NOT the International Date Line.--Mideal (talk) 13:26, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

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Knuckles Chaotix - weak example of a software bug
In regards to this edit, I really don't think this is a good example of a software bug. There are literally thousands of examples out there, and this one:
 * Comes from an obscure, relatively unpopular video game (Knuckles Chaotix).
 * Isn't even noted as a noteworthy aspect of the overarching series (Sonic the Hedgehog) or even the game itself. (Nor should it - it'd likely be removed on WP:GAMECRUFT/WP:TRIVIA grounds.)

There are literally thousands of software bugs out there for video games. This one ranks low in the world of video games, let alone the the broader software in general scope. Sergecross73  msg me  14:15, 8 March 2017 (UTC)
 * I removed them again. They're not notable and the WP:PEACOCK terms don't help make the case. Walter Görlitz (talk) 15:04, 8 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks. For the record, I don't oppose the Super Mario Bros. one for inclusion - that's one of the most iconic video games of all time, and the glitch is much more well-known (It's still getting RS coverage 30 years later.) The entry would need to be trimmed way down - it goes into a lot of unnecessary detail - but I think that's much closer to the type of thing that would be okay to list here. Sergecross73   msg me  15:32, 8 March 2017 (UTC)

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MissingNo. and Knuckles' glide
I think these are both notable glitches, but for some reason they keep getting removed. Here's what I've found: How are these not notable? ~ TheJoebro64 (talk) 17:27, 21 June 2017 (UTC)
 * 1) MissingNo. doesn't just have its own article, but it's a FA as well.
 * 2) The Knuckles glitch from Sonic Boom was cited by Kotaku as ruining the game, and GameSpot, Nintendo Life, and Polygon all published entire articles dedicated to it.
 * There's a discussion about Knuckles Chaotix above. Having an article doesn't mean the bug itself is notable. As a software tester, I can tell you lots of bugs are released with a product. Unless a bug makes non-niche news (like USA Today or The Guardian) rather than a gamer's mag (like the ones you're using as refs), it's likely just a curiosity rather than a notable bug and we risk turing this into a WP:LINKFARM or possibly WP:COATRACK. Walter Görlitz (talk) 17:34, 21 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Technically, what JoeBro is talking about here is a different Knuckles glitch, but that aside, I feel like it does have same issues the other Knuckles glitch had. It may be important within the Sonic fanbase, and had its 15 minutes of fame in the video game world, but in the much bigger pool of all software bugs of all time, its small potatoes. There was no general coverage, nor was there extended coverage.
 * Missingno, though, I don't feel has that same problem. It received coverage outside of the gaming industry. For example, its article shows that it was the subject of a published social sciences study based around glitches and how they affect people.
 * In short, I support Missingno's inclusion, but reject either/both Knuckles related examples. Sergecross73   msg me  17:58, 21 June 2017 (UTC)

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