Ah, computer bugs. The bane of every programmer’s existence. No matter how careful you are, they always seem to creep up when you least expect them. But what exactly are computer bugs, and how can you deal with them? Let’s get into it.
48% of users are less likely to use an app again if they’re unhappy with the app’s performance.
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What kind of bugs do you have?
In its simplest form, a computer bug is an error in the software that causes unexpected behaviour. They range from small glitches that are easy to fix to a big problem that crashes your whole system.
Now, let’s talk about the different types of bugs.
From the user’s perspective, there are two types of bugs:
- Visual: When your users complete a function, but something doesn’t look right. This may be a problem with the application’s responsive design.
- Functional: The site or app doesn’t work as intended. Ie. broken links or non-working buttons.
From the programmer’s side, there are a few different types:
- Syntax Errors: The most frequent kinds of bugs. They happen when your code deviates from the standards of the programming language. An example would be neglecting to close a bracket or placing a semicolon in the incorrect spot. The good news is that these mistakes are typically simple to identify and correct.
- Logical Errors: These are a little harder to handle because they don’t result in a code crash. Instead, they result in unanticipated outcomes from the programming. If your formula is incorrect and you try to develop a program that calculates the average of a group of values, you can get an inaccurate result.
- Runtime Errors: When the code is in use, and something unexpected happens, runtime errors appear. It can be a divide-by-zero error or a memory allocation problem. These defects have the drawback that their occurrence isn’t always predictable, making it challenging to identify their root cause. Depending on the level of difficulty, these bugs can have very little or a lot of impact on the user’s experience and can occur in one spot or throughout the system.
Who are you gonna call?
There are many different ways to address bugs depending on where and when you find them as well as the type of bug you find.
1. Development process
Preventing programming mistakes is the best course of action. Bugs may be prevented from ever occurring by using a reliable software development approach, such as the Agile and DevOps techniques. These development techniques incorporate testing for quality.
- Test-driven development: is one such method of development. Before a feature is developed, tests should be written to offer a benchmark against which to do so.
- Behaviour-driven development: this practice encourages programmers to design an application and describe the workflow in accordance with how users are anticipated to interact with it.
2. Software testing
You can also discover bugs in software testing. The way to make sure bugs don’t get to users is to test early and test often.
- Functional testing: entails checking the fundamentally sound components of a program for software bugs. This stage of testing verifies that every component functions. Smoke testing is another name for functional testing.
- Exploratory testing: these methods look for software pathways that are less frequent or that a typical functional test would overlook. An illustration of an exploratory test is a coverage test, which determines if an application functions properly across various platforms, browsers, and operating systems.
- Regression testing: used to determine whether earlier code modifications resulted in an unforeseen issue. The following forms of regression testing exist:
- Unit testing
- Integration testing
- System testing
- Acceptance testing
3. Benchmarking
Another good way to check for bugs is to have benchmarking or benchmark testing to establish baseline performance expectations. This can evaluate stability, responsiveness, speed and effectiveness.
- Load benchmarking: evaluating under a specific load, often the usual amount of traffic expected for the site or application.
- Spike benchmarking: evaluating under a sudden increase in workload.
- Breakpoint benchmarking: this pushes the workload to the max to see how much stress it can actually handle before crashing.
Did you know 43% of the web runs on WordPress?
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The status quo may be to think that most companies’ websites run on proprietarily built platforms. In reality, many sites, even some that might surprise you, are working partially on WordPress.
Fixing the bugs
Ah, yes, the art of finding and fixing all the things you found going wrong during testing. It can be immensely satisfying or incredibly frustrating, depending on who you talk to.
There are three steps involved:
- Isolating the bug
- Figuring out the root cause
- Fixing the problem
Sometimes it’s hard to retrace your steps to figure out where and how things went wrong. A bug bounty program is one way to find bugs. By crowdsourcing, experts such as ethical hackers and software security researchers get rewarded for spotting issues and providing bug reports that replicate or address vulnerabilities.
Usa-what-a?
A bug is just one kind of problem a program can have. Websites can run bug-free and still be difficult to use or fail at their main objective. This kind of flaw is tougher to test for. A well-designed program developed using a well-controlled process results in fewer bugs per thousand lines of code. This is why usability is important in testing sites before they launch.
Don’t worry! Our team makes sure to do usability testing when building your site to ensure a smooth experience for you and your users.
How we keep your website going
To give you peace of mind, Twirling Umbrellas offers a warranty to fix bugs on new websites to ensure you get started on the right foot. That being said, we always recommend ongoing support and maintenance.
Our support and maintenance package means you get end-to-end guidance with hands-on support for your WordPress website. We’ll help your site and its plugins and extensions run smoothly, and we’ll be planning ahead for future business growth. Think of it as an ongoing partnership with friendly digital experts. Plus, we regularly monitor your systems to ensure optimal performance.