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Category Archives: Poor Error Msg
Catching Generic Exception Classes
In Java you can have a try statement with multiple catch clauses. In a method that handles exceptions, by for example wrapping and rethrowing, it is important to catch the root-most “Exception” class and this post explains why even though … Continue reading
Posted in Coding, Design, Poor Error Msg Tagged catch, coding, exception, method-signature, subclasses, throw, try Leave a comment
Good Error Messages Can Be Easy
Here is an error message I encountered one day. It is frustrating, because obviously the code was checking something, but it is frustrating because you get no real clues what the problem really was, and a simple change would make … Continue reading
Posted in Coding, Example Code, Poor Error Msg Tagged code style, development, errors, exceptions, programming, source Leave a comment
Two Kinds of Exceptions
An exception is a message from the system to the user about something that the program can not handle. There are a couple of main categories of exceptions: environmental and program logic. They warrant quite different treatment.
Posted in Coding, Design, Poor Error Msg, practice Tagged code style, errors, exceptions, program logic error, usability Leave a comment
Error messages should be very literal
We all struggle with the correct wording for error messages. It is not easy. But I ran across an example today that should help understanding
"Oops something failed" is NOT acceptable error message
I try to keep track of real-life situations where poor error messages appear. That happened again today. This message was displayed to the user:
Error Message should be clear, plain, and direct
This post is about a real error message I received and puzzled through. Luckily, because I was working with open source code, I was able to see a copy of the source, and only then did I understand what the … Continue reading
Posted in Coding, Example Code, Poor Error Msg Tagged design, development, errors, exceptions 2 Comments
Usability Means Not Jumping Through Hoops
The image of being forced to jump through hoops is one of being required to take arbitrary actions in arbitrary orders just to satisfy some goals that are either unseen or at least not in the interest of the user. … Continue reading