Software engineering folklore

pejorative phrase for source code that has a complex and tangled control structure reminiscent of spaghetti

software development principle with the goal of reducing repetitive software patterns, and replacing them with abstractions that use data normalization to avoid redundancy

symptom in the source code of a program that possibly indicates a deeper problem

title given to a small number of open-source software development leaders

collection of definitions from computer subcultures

sequence of bytes used to identify or indicate the format of a file

In computer programming jargon, a heisenbug is a software bug that seems to disappear or alter its behavior when one attempts to study it. The term is a pun on the name of Werner Heisenberg, the physicist who first introduced the uncertainty principle, and it is a reference to the observer effect, which states that the act of observing a system inevitably alters its state. In electronics, the traditional term is probe effect, where attaching a test probe to a device changes its behavior. The term has been criticized because it confuses Heisenberg's uncertainty principle (to which it owes the n

unnecessarily duplicating a design when a satisfactory solution already exists

frustration of some software users who have installed software packages which have dependencies on specific versions of other software packages

deterioration of software quality over time due to accumulated bugs or changes in environment or dependencies

Slogan created by Sun Microsystems to advertise benefits of Java Platform

sections of code that have to be included in many places with little or no alteration

programming language or computer interface that allows for flexibility in function but is difficult to learn and use because it offers little or no support for common tasks

a rule of thumb in C++ (prior to C++11) stating that if a class defines one (or more) of destructor, copy constructor, or copy assignment operator, then it should probably explicitly define all three

style of computer programming characterized by the ritual inclusion of code or program structures that serve no real purpose

software design rule

methodology of software-engineering research

division of programming languages into system programming and scripting

Computing aphorism