N, programmiNg> 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 iNC 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)