All by the mere proximity of a Senior Engineer.
the same word is also used for the reverse situation, i.e. if something that did not work suddenly works when trying to demonstrate the failure.
think bug reporting e.g. at the car mechanic, warranty claims, etc. if you try to show a reproducible bug to others, it suddenly vanishes...
* My code doesn't work and I can't find the bug even after over an hour
* I add a few lines of <whatever code>. Now it works!
* Now, just for comparison, I remove all the code I just added (or, at least I think I reverted back to previous state). But now it still works.
???
Though it depends on the cause - as others in this comment chain said, if it's just that the file isn't actually being updated between tests, but adding a new line forces an update/recompile/etc., I'm not sure what you'd call it.
* The program works flawlessly
* Somebody finds a bug on the code that is executed in a test
* The relevant test now fails consistently
Both are probably because you changed something on the environment when you looked at the code.
Makefile (or a similar build system which uses timestamps) + a problem with wall clock -> stale files.
https://quentin.delcourt.be/blog/2020-01-22_demo-effect/
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=demo%20effec...
Or an out-of-memory condition, the system recovers when the OOM killer has killed a random process. If you were lucky that process was your game hogging ressources and when it went away the system recovered.
And for impressive German words? "Systemaufstauung mit urplötzlicher Lösung" (system bottleneck with sudden resolving), "Speicherüberlastung" (memory overload) or "Prozessabmurkser" (process terminator).
Note that I invented these words (oder auf gut Deutsch, ich habe mir diese Wörter aus den Fingern gesaugt).
O Lambda the Ultimate, bless we who are in this demo...
That our core be functional,
and our functions be pure.
That our data be immutable,
so we may know the value of values.
That our systems be composable,
so they may scale with grace.
That their States only mutate
in pleasantly surprising ways.
That the networks and servers stay up.
Well, at least through this demo.
For otherwise, nothing lives, nothing evolves.
In the name of the \alpha and the \beta and the \eta...
\(\lambda x.x x\) \(\lambda x.x x\) ; eternally
(edit: formatting)
Because this happens a lot to me these days, no kidding. The bug happens, some user delights in calling me over, I take a look, they simply can't reproduce it, I walk away - they get the bug again - and, yeah, I kind of have to race ahead of things to understand the nature of the users situation.
Happen to anyone else? I don't think its quite like Vorführeffekt, and is maybe a bit more like Daseinsvermögung oder etwas ..
I also love how German often has useful opposites - schadenfreude vs fremdschamen, for example.
On that note, is there an opposite to this, where someone observes that something's not working, they call in the expert to diagnose the problem, and it functions perfectly under demonstration?
Now, I have a word for it...
They often occur because we'll say "I just want to fix this one thing before we build the demo". We call this type of commit to the source control system a "break-in" instead of a "check-in".
Vore-fyur-effect
Letter 'v' is called "fow" in German and is pronounced as sound "f".
Definitely a thing!
Edit: demo effect?