What causes computerized technology to screw up so often (glitches, freezes, shutdowns) if its all based on calculations?
In: Technology
Someone said it earlier, but computers do not do what they want you do, they do what you tell them to do. I have had to tell this to my fellow software engineers. A computer will follow the exact pathway, the exact set of instructions it has been given. So for example, if the UI has not been coded efficiently to prevent re-rendering of a web app, it will re-render unnecessarily and cause issues because it’s just following instructions.
One possible error is an out of memory error. There are physical limitations on any one computer. When the programs exceed that limitation, bad things start to happen. Freezing occurs as there is no memory left to store things anymore. The Java Virtual Machine throws an `OutOfMemoryError` when this occurs. The Operating System then frantically tries to kill processes to get back some leeway in memory.
The last thing you should keep in mind is that computers rely on hardware like the CPU. These are not guaranteed to be 100% defect free, which can cause issues as well.
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