What should I call the label/field name for how often you can run into a bug in the wild?

Question

I'm making a browser bug archive application and for each bug I want to have a field and corresponding values that identify the rarity of a bug.

I could use rarity as the label and values 'high, medium/normal, low, edge-case' but when you say 'high rarity' it doesnt make much semantic sense... or is it me? If the values were something like 'normal, rare' it would make sense but I'm having trouble thinking of a label that isn't rarity.

Reproducibility? Rarity? Occurrency?

Answer 1

I would go with occurrence. Have some values like: often, rare, very rare, occassional, frequent, always, etc.

Answer 2

I would use "frequency", which is, more or less, the converse of "rarity" -- except that "high frequency" and "low frequency" do make perfect sense.

Answer 3

+1 for caring about the semantics. I strive to be accurate/consistent/descriptive across all my code.

I would search on occurrence and frequency.

http://freethesaurus.net/s.php?q=occurrence

Answer 4

Don't use just one word in this case. Frequency of what? Reproducibility, rarity, don't feel natural and occurrency isn't even a word (not that you to care ;). Go with bugFrequency or get more detailed if you want. Long variable names are not a crime, especially if you actually plan to keep the code around for more than a few milliseconds.

Also, do you have any particular reason for wanting to use enum style values instead of just integers? Since you'll probably often want to sort the bugs, enum like values for frequency doesn't really make sense. Some global integer constants of when you define bug to be 'rare' or a 'common' should suffice in your categorization. This lets you eliminate a the additional enum field entirely and just do this:

if bugFrequency < RARE_BUG_MINIMUM_FREQUENCY:
    //treat as rare
else if bugFrequency < UNCOMMON_BUG_MINIMUM_FREQUENCY:
    //treat as uncommon
else if bugFrequency < COMMON_BUG_MINIMUM_FREQUENCY:
    //treat as common

instead of checking for an internal enum value. Since you'll use multiple factors to judge the importance of the bug, enum values don't make as much sense at this point.

(sorry if this was way more of my opinion than you wanted :)

Answer 5

Considering it's bugs, the temptation is to go with "swarm density", but the English "frequency" is probably the closest. If you're still looking for variations, though:

"Incidence", "annoyance", "whine", "squeak", and "wail" might brighten the mood of an issue tracker.