(octave.info)Bug Criteria

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D.2.1 Have You Found a Bug?
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If you are not sure whether you have found a bug, here are some
guidelines:

   • If Octave gets a fatal signal, for any input whatever, that is a
     bug.  Reliable interpreters never crash.

   • If Octave produces incorrect results, for any input whatever, that
     is a bug.

   • Some output may appear to be incorrect when it is in fact due to a
     program whose behavior is undefined, which happened by chance to
     give the desired results on another system.  For example, the range
     operator may produce different results because of differences in
     the way floating point arithmetic is handled on various systems.

   • If Octave produces an error message for valid input, that is a bug.

   • If Octave does not produce an error message for invalid input, that
     is a bug.  However, you should note that your idea of “invalid
     input” might be my idea of “an extension” or “support for
     traditional practice”.

   • If you are an experienced user of programs like Octave, your
     suggestions for improvement are welcome in any case.