[from Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle in quantum physics] A bug
that disappears or alters its behavior when one attempts to probe or
isolate it. (This usage is not even particularly fanciful; the use of
a debugger sometimes alters a program's operating environment
significantly enough that buggy code, such as that which relies on
the values of uninitialized memory, behaves quite differently.)
Antonym of {Bohr bug}; see also {mandelbug}, {schroedinbug}. In C,
nine out of ten heisenbugs result from uninitialized auto variables,
{fandango on core} phenomena (esp. lossage related to corruption of
the malloc {arena}) or errors that {smash the stack}.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {Bohr bug}{DEADBEEF}{glitch}{mandelbug}{overrun screw}{phase of the moon}{schroedinbug}{TCB}]