I would add more to what EmperorFool said: clearly troytheface is thinking on a competitive enviroment with limited time ( something like the chess competitons ). It is the only way of that test giving "cheat" to any kind of time saving tool..... for example, PBEM gaming will not be affected for that
Besides that rather limited assumptions, no time saving tool will acuse "cheat" .
Even when limited time is involved, it'd be difficult to see time savers as cheats, because the speed with which the game runs is not standardized among users. I.e., if you have one player with a blazing fast machine, and another player with a slow machine with jerky scrolling and frequent pauses for paging memory in or out, then the second player is at a clear disadvantage if you give both players the same time for their actions.
If the slower player could use a mod to increase the game's speed on his machine (like the mod that existed for Warlords IIRC which removed unneeded Python calls from the game), then he'd actually create a *fairer* playing field for the competition, although the criterion "mods that help players in a competitive environment are cheats" would label him as a cheater.
Likewise, to label mods like BUG as cheats, you'd need a competition where usage of all kinds of playing aids is strictly regulated. For example:
a) You can try to remember when the whipping penalty for each city is over
b) You can use paper and pencil to make notes. This would not be a cheat according to the last definition given.
c) You can use a second PC and write a small program for that note-keeping, like the reminder system in BUG. Again, this would not be a cheat according to the last definition given
d) You can use BUG, which does the same as c), it' just integrates it in the game.
So how can the same thing be considered as a cheat (d) or as okay (c) depending solely on whether it's implemented as a mod or as an external program? The effect is the same.
So, to be able to call BUG a cheat, it's not sufficient to say that you're in a competitive environment that allows no mods. You'd need a competitive environment where all participants play on the same hardware (and strictly control that the game doesn't play faster or more fluid for some than for others), and you'd also need strict control (and rules for) the usage of external aids like notepads, small programs, etc.
