Re: Chat: Helpful error messages

[Kathleen Padova <kpadova -at- ASICENTRAL -dot- COM>]

     I found the original posting lurking around my mailbox.


______________________________ Forward Header __________________________________
Subject: Re: Chat: Helpful error messages
Author:  GDDREW -at- SMTP (Gregory D Drew) {gddrew -at- JUNO -dot- COM} at MHS
Date:    3/6/97 9:50 PM


Reminds me of one of the early introductions of "Tina the Brittle Tech
Writer" in the Dilbert comic strips.  The Boss tells her that she has to
get the user guide done when the software code hasn't even been written
yet.  When she objects, the Boss tells her to "make logical guesses"
(sound familiar??).  Thus she writes

  "If you press any key, your computer will crash.  If you call our
technical support
    department, we'll blame Microsoft."

Greg Drew


On Tue, 4 Mar 1997 11:22:57 -0600 geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA writes:
> In a meeting today to get some new user documentation
> rolling, I raised the topic of how cryptic some of the
> error messages were. The junior programmer quickly agreed
> that some of them needed work, then suggested that we
> should just call them "general protection faults" and let
> the users blame Microsoft. An excellent thought... hope
> some of you dealing with cryptic error messages can put
> this one to good use.
>
> --Geoff Hart     @8^{)}     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
> Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.
>
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Forward item:
---------------------------- Forwarded with Changes ---------------------------
From: GDDREW -at- SMTP (Gregory D Drew) {gddrew -at- JUNO -dot- COM} at MHS
Date: 3/6/97 9:50PM -0800
*To: TECHWR-L -at- SMTP {TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU} at MHS
Subject: Re: Chat: Helpful error messages
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