Mistakes in programming are called bugs- but not really for whimsical reasons.

[ritog]

I the section called Debugging in the first chapter, it is mentioned that mistakes in a program are called bugs- for whimsical reasons.

In this sentence specifically-

Programmers make mistakes. For whimsical reasons, programming errors are called bugs and the process of tracking them down is called debugging.

But this is not very accurate.

Before transistors, ICs, and finally, fabricated circuit boards took over in computers, vacuum tubes used to be used in making computers.

The nomenclature of bugs was publicized by Admiral Grace Hopper. This is mentioned in the Wikipedia page-

The term "bug" was used in an account by computer pioneer Grace Hopper, who publicized the cause of a malfunction in an early electromechanical computer. A typical version of the story is:

In 1946, when Hopper was released from active duty, she joined the Harvard Faculty at the Computation Laboratory where she continued her work on the Mark II and Mark III. Operators traced an error in the Mark II to a moth trapped in a relay, coining the term bug. This bug was carefully removed and taped to the log book. Stemming from the first bug, today we call errors or glitches in a program a bug.

Sources:

1. FCAT NRT Test, Harcourt, March 18, 2008
2. http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Hopper.Danis.html

Now granted that the term already existed before this incident, it was still publicized beginning from this incident.

Although it would be inaccurate to say that this incident coined the term bug, it might be interesting for people to know.

References and more can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_bug#History

[OldSubSailor]

@ghosh-r
I was going to point out the very same thing. Good job.

[stevengj]

It's a matter of taste — To me, it's still rather whimsical that we use this anecdote to justify calling programmer error "bugs".