From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_20,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,e4b2dce209393666 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: sb463ba@d250-hrz.uni-duisburg.de (Georg Bauhaus) Subject: Re: Business Week (12/6/99 issue) article on Software Quality Date: 1999/12/09 Message-ID: <82pb65$f03$1@news-hrz.uni-duisburg.de>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 558759627 References: <82hk54$cbc$1@nntp6.atl.mindspring.net> <82lv4i$aso$1@nnrp1.deja.com> <82mle2$3v3$1@nntp8.atl.mindspring.net> Organization: Gerhard-Mercator-Universitaet - Gesamthochschule Duisburg Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1999-12-09T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Richard D Riehle (laoXhai@ix.netcom.com) wrote: : The choice of a word can be quite important to how someone perceives : a product or idea. A question to the native English speakers: I read here in my English/German dictionary (1987) that "bug" in Britain quite definitely denotes an insect you would not want to meet on your mattress, whereas in North America it more generally denotes a rich set of small animals, mostly insects, and also ("Am. sl.") "Defekt". There are also references to "big bug" and "jitterbug". In Germany, the English word "bug" is in common use (in talking about programs), it is almost never translated, and if so, the German words for "beetle", "moth", or, well, "bug" are used, not all of which might evoke the same assiciations in every situation. At work, you can be sure to hear the english word "bug", I'd say. And you can be quite sure that programmers yho hear about (English:) bugs in their programs will twitch and shudder, BECAUSE they know these are mistakes. And German users of programs will show an expression of, at least, distaste if they see the program they try to use is malfunctioning, if functioning at all. ;-) Can you say what people in the English speaking countries feel or associate when they here "bug" in talking about programs? Georg Bauhaus