Why do error messages never make any bloody sense ?

Question

Have two particular annoying shortcuts on my desktop - double click - error message says Windows can't find a particular web address which said shortcut represents and ditto with the other one - but damn fool computer still takes me to the respective websites, but leaves either of these two stupid error messages lying about.

Surely if the thing says it can't do it - it shouldn't be doing it - but it does - Microsoft are full of something extremely brown, sticky and smelly - why write software that doesn't have logical flow in it's warning advisory messages - that's what I want to know ?

Of course the best one I've ever seen was not only on a Nokia 9210 pda but also on an Ericcsson P800 pda aswell - and that was 'unknown error' - what bloody chance does that give you eh ?

That's like saying I haven't got the key to the lock that isn't there ? The people who design these damn fool systems need a severe kick up the bottom several times a day! I'd like to stamp on their heads!

Answer 1

I agree with you that such 'unknown' error messages are annoying, and don't really help.

The software texbooks tell us that every function call should ideally check for return value and handle error. Even a print statement has to be checked for errors! It's a different matter that most of these textbooks omit error handling themselves, either because the continuity might be lost or to save print space.

Error handling typically accounts for over 30% of the code size. In embedded devices where memory is a premium, the only way to increase the number of features supported while keeping the memory size same is to cut down on error handling.

Other reason could be that a function like printf is always 'known' to work and is hence not checked for errors.

Another reason is that documentation in the s/w industry has a lot of catching up to do and is either non-existant or not upto date and so error codes are missed.

Schedule pressures, laziness etc may be other factors. It often goes over the head of developers that by actually handling the error messages well, they could cut down on their own debugging efforts.

This question is actually a wake-up call to the s/w development community to do a better job and create a more user friendly experience w/ software.

Answer 2

You try to write a complex program that will never give you an error. It's not as easy as it seems.

Answer 3

Welcome to the wonderful world of computing lol

Answer 4

http://www.farid-hajji.net/fun/cj-errormessages.html

haha welcome to the microsoft world!