Orchid XP v8 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> [BTW, WTF is an *expected* error anyway??]

  For example incorrect input, network connection problems, hardware
failures (such as inability to read from disc), etc. etc.

  Even seen eg. those 404 messages? That's an expected error which
sometimes happens.

  An unexpected error is something which shouldn't happen but happened
anyways (instead of the program crashing, the unexpected situation was
caught).

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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. wrote:
> "Orchid XP v8" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote

> > Unfortunately, it has become common for programs to give messages such
> > as "an unexpected error has occurred. Sorry."
> >
> > [BTW, WTF is an *expected* error anyway??]

> Actually, the above *is* an example of an expected error (the programmer put
> that message in, didn't he?). Unexpected errors either go unnoticed or crash
> the system.

  Wrong. Unexpected errors are things which should never happen, and if
they do the indicate a bug in the program.
  Typical example:

switch(something)
{
 case A: ...
 case B: ...
 ...

 default:
    error("Unexpected error happened.");
    // This should never happen because all possible cases were dealt above.
    // If we ever get here, it's a clear sign of a bug in the program.
}

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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"Warp" <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote in message
news:481a2348@news.povray.org...
> . wrote:
> > "Orchid XP v8" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote

> > > Unfortunately, it has become common for programs to give messages such
> > > as "an unexpected error has occurred. Sorry."
> > >
> > > [BTW, WTF is an *expected* error anyway??]

> > Actually, the above *is* an example of an expected error (the programmer
put
> > that message in, didn't he?). Unexpected errors either go unnoticed or
crash
> > the system.

>  Wrong. Unexpected errors are things which should never happen, and if
>  they do

Want to rephrase that? <g>

> the indicate a bug in the program.
>   Typical example:
>
> switch(something)
> {
>  case A: ...
>  case B: ...
>  ...
>
>  default:
>     error("Unexpected error happened.");
>     // This should never happen because all possible cases were dealt
above.
>     // If we ever get here, it's a clear sign of a bug in the program.
> }

No, the error is either expected, but programmer shows bad form (ie, the
programmer anticipates "illegal" input but doesn't check it at the procedure
entry, and instead does it inside program logic) or a pointless exercise, as
in:

If ((X=True)=True)=True Then ... //just making sure!...

or

If X=4 Then
   ...
Else if X<>4 Then
  ...
Else
  Exception()..

Sure, QM, if nothing else, tells us that there are no guarantees, but it's
pointless to expect an error where it cannot logically be, or raise
exceptions in places that cannot logically be reached. Conversely, under
abnormal circumstances, all opcodes are suspect.

I agree, however, that "unexpected errors" are bugs.

PS. Yes, I know, some programming languages are perverse enough that the
code above makes sense.

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"Warp" <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote in message
news:481a22ae@news.povray.org...
> Orchid XP v8 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> > [BTW, WTF is an *expected* error anyway??]

>   For example incorrect input, network connection problems, hardware
> failures (such as inability to read from disc), etc. etc.
>
>   Even seen eg. those 404 messages? That's an expected error which
> sometimes happens.

404 is not an error on the part of the server but a perfectly well defined
and normal response. If I ask you for a glass of wine and you tell me
there's no wine, that doesn't indiate an error on your part. An error would
be if you tell me "green" in response to the question "what colour is
wine?". One cannot even say it's an error on part of the client - it depends
on context. If the client is, say, purposefully sending a bunch of random or
semi random requests (maybe DOS attack), then it's not in error when
requesting nonexistant pages. Programmers call responses like 404 errors out
of sloppiness or laziness.

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On Thu, 01 May 2008 17:30:35 +0100, Doctor John wrote:

> http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/it-downtime-blog/2008/04/error-
messages-you-never-want-1.html
> 
> :-)

I still prefer the one I got from Windows + a biometric scanner (during 
GINA login):  "An error occurred:  The operation was successful".  Oh, 
and it wouldn't log me in (I wish I could've gotten a screenshot)

Jim

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On Thu, 01 May 2008 19:27:54 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> [BTW, WTF is an *expected* error anyway??]

In eDirectory, it's not uncommon to see -601 errors (object not found) in 
a number of circumstances, and in some of those circumstances, the error 
is expected (such as a user mistypes their username).

Jim

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>> BTW, irony: At college, we had a C compiler that used to give us all 
>> this error message, and to this day nobody knows what that message 
>> actually means. Including the tutors. Hmm. ;-)
> 
> Yay for open source. You could have looked into the compiler code :)

Nah. Today I can just ask Warp what it means. ;-)

Hey Warp, what does it mean when you call printf() and the compiler says 
"suspicious pointer conversion"?

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> Hey Warp, what does it mean when you call printf() and the compiler says 
> "suspicious pointer conversion"?

  Difficult to say without seeing the actual code.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Jim Henderson wrote:

> I still prefer the one I got from Windows + a biometric scanner (during 
> GINA login):  "An error occurred:  The operation was successful".  Oh, 
> and it wouldn't log me in (I wish I could've gotten a screenshot)

Well *clearly* a Windows operation being successful would indicate an 
error; Windows operations are designed to _fail_. ;-)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Warp wrote:
> Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> Hey Warp, what does it mean when you call printf() and the compiler says 
>> "suspicious pointer conversion"?
> 
>   Difficult to say without seeing the actual code.

OK, well obviously 10 years later I don't still have it. All I can 
remember is that *loads* of people used to get this error. And it always 
seemed to involve printf().

I also remember that several people found that when you run their 
compiled program, it dumps many, many pages of gibberish to the console, 
and beeps repeatedly, until [if you're lucky] it would randomly stop. 
Presumably this is because you gave printf() an int when it was 
expecting a char*, and it's now printing out the contents of the 
machine's RAM until it happens upon a zero octet... (The deeps are due 
to the 0x07 BEL characters.)

I presume this doesn't work on a protected-mode OS?

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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