Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun computing A software bug which fails to manifest itself during debugging; a problem that cannot be diagnosed in the debugger because it does not occur in that environment.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

(ca. 1983) Named for the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which states very roughly that any attempt to measure the position of a subatomic particle will disrupt its movement, making it harder to predict.

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Examples

  • You will never really understand the power and expressiveness of homoiconic languages until you have spent forty years straight debugging some heisenbug.

    Reflective Surface - Archives: 2009 August 2009

  • You will never really understand the power and expressiveness of homoiconic languages until you have spent forty years straight debugging some heisenbug.

    Reflective Surface - Use dynamic languages 2009

  • Problems that disappear under the debugger are a classic symptom of a heisenbug, this was no exception.

    MSDN Blogs 2008

  • Problems that disappear under the debugger are a classic symptom of a heisenbug, this was no exception.

    MSDN Blogs 2008

  • "Knowledge is just opinion that you trust enough to act upon." heisenbug and thought I'd pass on what was happening.

    MSDN Blogs 2008

  • Aside from being insanely cool and perhaps the end of the heisenbug, I think this shows how VMware's 10 years of experience manifests itself in innovation.

    VMware RSS Feed 2008

  • "Knowledge is just opinion that you trust enough to act upon." heisenbug and thought I'd pass on what was happening.

    MSDN Blogs 2008

  • "Knowledge is just opinion that you trust enough to act upon." heisenbug and thought I'd pass on what was happening.

    MSDN Blogs 2008

  • Problems that disappear under the debugger are a classic symptom of a heisenbug, this was no exception.

    MSDN Blogs 2008

  • Aside from being insanely cool and perhaps the end of the heisenbug, I think this shows how VMware's 10 years of experience manifests itself in innovation.

    VMware RSS Feed 2008

Comments

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  • A computer bug, that when you look at it, it isn't there any more. A play off of the Heisenburg Uncertainty Principle.

    December 14, 2006

  • or, indeed, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

    See also Bohr bug.

    January 12, 2009

  • Just noticed the December 2013 release of Fedora Linux will be codenamed 'Heisenbug'

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fedora_versions#Fedora_20

    October 22, 2013