gotcha
 n.

    A misfeature of a system, especially a programming language or
    environment, that tends to breed bugs or mistakes because it is both
    enticingly easy to invoke and completely unexpected and/or unreasonable in
    its outcome. For example, a classic gotcha in C is the fact that if (a=b)
    code; is syntactically valid and sometimes even correct. It puts the
    value of b into a and then executes code if a is non-zero. What the
    programmer probably meant was if (a==b) code;, which executes code if a
    and b are equal.

gotcha

    A misfeature of a system, especially a
   programming language or environment, that tends to breed
   bugs or mistakes because it both enticingly easy to invoke
   and completely unexpected and/or unreasonable in its outcome.

   For example, a classic gotcha in C is the fact that

   	if (a=b) code;

   is syntactically valid and sometimes even correct.  It puts
   the value of "b" into "a" and then executes "code" if "a" is
   non-zero.  What the programmer probably meant was

   	if (a==b) code;

   which executes "code" if "a" and "b" are equal.

   [Jargon File]

   (1995-04-17)