Dept of Utterly Useless Error Messages

[Bazooka Joe]

check engine light on the dash has to be the worst

On 5/1/07, Mike McCarty <Mike.McCarty at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Aaron Konstam wrote:
> > I would hate to put some rationality into what is otherwise a great
> > discussion, but have any of you tried to create a system of any size
> > with useful (that is useful to every user) error messages. It is pretty
> > tough.
> >
> > This is one of the reasons as Fred Brooks comments in his book "The
> > Mythical Man-Month" it takes 9 times as long to create a software system
> > that can be used by people in general than a system that only your use.
>
> Wonderful book.
>
> I recall one time when I created a debugger which could be used
> over a network to debug massively parallel processors (MIMD
> loosely coupled). I put in the code for the protocol I designed
> with no back out, no recovery, just presume all messages get
> there, etc. I got it working in about a week. My company wanted
> to ship it!
>
> I did a quick estimate, and came up with two months to make the
> thing actually usable. I had a very Very VERY hard time getting
> management to understand why I couldn't just package it up and
> ship it.
>
> I'm sure some of them thought I wasted two months fooling around.
>
> Mike
> --
> p="p=%c%s%c;main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}";main(){printf(p,34,p,34);}
> Oppose globalization and One World Governments like the UN.
> This message made from 100% recycled bits.
> You have found the bank of Larn.
> I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you.
> I speak only for myself, and I am unanimous in that!
>
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