Visual Basic 2012 Programmer's Reference

BUGS VERSUS UNPLANNED CONDITIONS

Several different types of unplanned conditions can derail an otherwise high-quality application. How you should handle these conditions depends on their nature.

For this discussion, a bug is a mistake in the application code. Some bugs become apparent right away and are easy to fix. These usually include simple typographic errors in the code and cases where you misuse an object (for example, by using the wrong control property). Other bugs are subtler and may only be detected long after they occur. For example, a data-entry routine might place invalid characters into a rarely used field in a Customer object. Only later when the program tries to access that field will you discover the problem. This kind of bug is difficult to track down and fix, but you can take some proactive steps to make these sorts of bugs easier to find.

BUGS THROUGHOUT HISTORY

On a historical note, the term “bug” has been used since at least the time of the telegraph to mean some sort of defect. Probably the origin of the term in computer science was an actual moth that was caught between two relays in an early computer in 1947. For a bit more information, including a picture of this first computer bug, see http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/tek1/first_computer_bug.htm.

An unplanned condition is some predictable condition that you don’t want to happen, but that you know could happen despite your best efforts. For example, there are many ways that a simple printing operation ...