It’s been a while since I’ve developed a new pet peeve but here I am with a new entry. This new one has been in the works for months as I’ve been reading video gaming messages, sifting for posts about skate.
A huge majority of the gaming public refers to a software defect in a game as a “glitch”. I guess since I’m getting older now, this irks me to no end. At least to me, the proper term for a software defect is a “bug“. In the nearly two years I was a games tester, I never heard the term “glitch” used once on a project. Without fail, the term “bug” was used universally. We had bug reports, bug counts, the bug database, showstopper bugs, rendering bugs, audio bugs and I could go on.
Even now as a software engineer nothing has changed. Developers call defects bugs and this has been my experience at two different companies. As soon as someone says or writes the word “glitch” I instantly classify that person a civilian, some dude who doesn’t work in the industry.
So please, do me a favour and don’t call them glitches, they’re bugs. Even if you have to change:
“Erwin, you worked on a glitchy piece of crap”
to
“Erwin, you worked on a buggy piece of crap”
That’s ok with me. At least it’s the proper terminology.
Ha ha ha! I agree! In fact, when I used to train new testers at EAC, I’d specifically tell them to not use the word “glitch”. (Turns out, the term’s origins are linked to NASA’s space program, and was used to refer to a spike, or surge, in power.)My other pet peeve is spelling it “localization”, when “localisation” refers to translating, and never used to be just the “British” way of spelling it.
There was a push at one time in a certain QA department to call them “defects” (remember the Defect Capture Rate?) Luckily it didn’t last.Why use 2 syllables when you can use one?