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Error messages

Started by Supercytro Oct 24, 2001 at 8:04 AM 3 replies 500+ views

Original Post

Oct 24, 2001 at 8:04 AM

quote:
Yesterday a young secretary called our helpline saying she's following the instructions on screen, but when she types in the word "mismatch", nothing happens! A bit puzzled, I asked what it is she's actually trying to do, and she says she's hit File/Save and a dialog window came up telling her "Type Mismatch" which she did.

A (old) quote I found on the net. When I code at work, we generally send our messages to be verifeid by the documentation department who will proof-read it. The error messages will be in the format of (for example) Type Mismatch Please ensure correctly corresponding type is provided. For hobby coding, I generally (and perhaps foolishly) type messages which make sense for me (at the time) as basically I'm lazy. Likewise with debug messages. Now I accept that this isn't the best solution but I wonder how error messages are handled elsewhere? Are error numbers sequentially assigned or are they hierachical (at work, they're sequential)? Are the error messages properly defined before hand or are they added in and completed at the final stages? and (the reason why this is in this forum) any other amusing error messages? [Edit: fixed quote block] -- Supercytro Edited by - supercytro on October 24, 2001 9:05:45 AM

Big B

Oct 24, 2001 at 9:05 AM

I was using a program called FOP to convert xml to pdf. After changing my stylesheet to output tables, and it started printing out this:

[ERROR]: <
[ERROR]: <
[ERROR]: <
[ERROR]: <

very descriptive.

A little later, I used one of the products my company developed. It gave me this error when it opened a particular file:

"Routine D120:Unexpected Error #13 - Type Mismatch"

This told me two things, It was in routine D120, and the program didn''t see it coming.

If you are developing anything anyone is going to use at anytime, avoid these kinds of error messages as they make no sense.

CheeseGrater

Oct 24, 2001 at 9:16 AM

Ever notice that recent programs tend to say ''Push a key to continue''? This is because when they said ''Push any key to continue'' people actually looked for an ''any'' key to push. Now that sort of person always pushes the ''a'' key, which while still silly, at least prevents a tech support call.

I used to get this stuff all the time while I was working in IS.

Gaiiden

589

Gaiiden

Oct 24, 2001 at 11:38 AM

sorry to stay off topic a bit but I know of a tech-support call that went something like this:

Man: Yes, hello. I''m calling because the coffee-cup holder on my PC broke.
Tech asst: What?
Man: The holder for my coffee cup!
Tech asst: Sir, our computers don''t come with coffee-cup holders.
Man: Sure they do! You press a button and a tray slides out with a hole in it. I put my mug in there and the thing snapped like a twig!

Is this sad or is this sad??

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Supercytro

Author

Supercytro

Oct 24, 2001 at 11:56 AM

With games, we can try to improve the AI. No such luck with some users

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