What is a Side Effect?

posted by  kevyn (54)  12 months ago (blogs.msdn.com)

We've all heard the commercials or read the prescription information sheets describing the possible side effects of medications.  The side effects described are typically negative (ex: upset stomach).  There are other side effects of a more positive nature; a medication helping treat an illness that it was not designed for, etc.  In software, side effects are very similar.  Software side effects are any 'unexpected' change in application behavior or data / object state that occur due to execution of some code.  Side effects in software are quite often encounter