Actor Wayne Knight in the original Jurassic Park movie playing the role of the unscrupulous programmer Dennis Nedry, (anagram of "Nerdy",) the main villain. |
Malicious Inaction (noun) any situation where a piece of software encounters an unexpected condition and responds by deliberately doing nothing, including not throwing an exception. Synonyms: Silent Failure; Deliberate Malfunction; Unscrupulous Programming; Undermining; Sabotage; Treachery; Subversion; Vandalism.
I think that the term "Silent Failure" fails to express the amount of harm done. Sure, the word "failure" indicates that something went wrong, but the word "silent" somewhat lessens the severity of the term, and it makes sound as if no feathers were ruffled, so it may have been alright.
Well, no. It was not alright. It never is. We need a stronger term to better capture the harm caused by the sinister practice of hiding error. We need a term that clearly conveys wrongdoing, a term that assigns blame and shame.
Hence, I present to the world my new and improved term: Malicious Inaction.