Chambers <ben### [at] pacificwebguycom> wrote:
> To me, one of the most important things a piece of code (whether it's an
> entire program, or just a single routine) can do is fail gracefully.  If
> it fails, enough context and information should be given that you know
> why it failed.
>
> iTunes is absolutely horrible at this.  Apparently, Apple thinks that
> "failing gracefully" means quietly ignore the error with no record of it
> being kept anywhere.  In other words, you don't even *know* there's an
> error.  Your only clue is that the expected result didn't actually
> occur.  Once you figure out there's been an error, you have no idea what
> caused it.
>
> Talk about bad practice.
>
> ...Chambers

I've had repeated problems over the years with Quicktime to the
point where I dread installing it.

-Mike

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Chambers wrote:
> To me, one of the most important things a piece of code (whether it's an 
> entire program, or just a single routine) can do is fail gracefully.  If 
> it fails, enough context and information should be given that you know 
> why it failed.
> 
> iTunes is absolutely horrible at this.  Apparently, Apple thinks that 
> "failing gracefully" means quietly ignore the error with no record of it 
> being kept anywhere.  In other words, you don't even *know* there's an 
> error.  Your only clue is that the expected result didn't actually 
> occur.  Once you figure out there's been an error, you have no idea what 
> caused it.
> 
> Talk about bad practice.

For the average iTunes user (think:  grossly ignorant teenager), 
feedback would be useless.

Regards,
John

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John VanSickle wrote:

> For the average iTunes user (think:  grossly ignorant teenager), 
> feedback would be useless.

I disagree.

If you're an idiot, you won't understand what the error message is 
saying. But knowing that there was an actual error is still useful.

PS. Not all teenagers are ignorant. Some of them use WinAmp. *rimshot*

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

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Darren New wrote:
> 
> I liked the Amiga mechanism much better. You drag a file onto a disk 
> icon, it pops up a window saying the drive is write-protected, you take 
> the disk out, unprotect it, put it back in, and it automatically clicks 
> "retry" for you.
> 

That can't be good, 'cause it assumes that user can and will do 
something to prevent the error, while computers Should Just Work (or be 
delivered to service company).

-- 
Eero "Aero" Ahonen
    http://www.zbxt.net
       aer### [at] removethiszbxtnetinvalid

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>> I liked the Amiga mechanism much better. You drag a file onto a disk 
>> icon, it pops up a window saying the drive is write-protected, you 
>> take the disk out, unprotect it, put it back in, and it automatically 
>> clicks "retry" for you.
>>
> 
> That can't be good, 'cause it assumes that user can and will do 
> something to prevent the error, while computers Should Just Work.

Yes. Silently refusing to do what the user asked without telling them 
why would be a far superior solution. Especially when the problem is 
trivially fixable.

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

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Eero Ahonen wrote:
> Darren New wrote:
>>
>> I liked the Amiga mechanism much better. You drag a file onto a disk 
>> icon, it pops up a window saying the drive is write-protected, you 
>> take the disk out, unprotect it, put it back in, and it automatically 
>> clicks "retry" for you.
>>
> 
> That can't be good, 'cause it assumes that user can and will do 
> something to prevent the error, 
You had always the option of cancelling in stead of solving the problem.

> while computers Should Just Work (or be 
> delivered to service company).

I also like the MS solution of giving the error but no retry option (at 
least unto XP). Works great when copying lots of files and after 10 
minutes one of the last ones encounters a disk full.

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andrel wrote:

> I also like the MS solution of giving the error but no retry option (at 
> least unto XP). Works great when copying lots of files and after 10 
> minutes one of the last ones encounters a disk full.

Ooo yes, it's *great* when a file copy or move operation fails. 
Especially with a move - half the files are now in one place, and half 
in another place. Good luck manually undoing the operation so you can 
try again! ;-)

(Particularly if you have millions of files in a complex directory 
structure. Merging the two halves back together is really not fun...)

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

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Eero Ahonen wrote:
> That can't be good, 'cause it assumes that user can and will do 
> something to prevent the error, while computers Should Just Work (or be 
> delivered to service company).

I haven't any idea what that means, I'm afraid.

Not even knowing that there was something I could do to un-dim the 
option on the Mac is what confused me. I had no idea it was done on 
purpose, and it wasn't just something I was doing wrong.

Kind of like in an adventure game where there's no difference between 
"you can't do that" and "I don't understand that" and "you can't do that 
here and now".

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
  Helpful housekeeping hints:
   Check your feather pillows for holes
    before putting them in the washing machine.

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John VanSickle wrote:
> For the average iTunes user (think:  grossly ignorant teenager), 
> feedback would be useless.

It's far better than my wife asking me, "Why won't iTunes play this 
MP3?" and my saying, "I have no frackin' idea, it doesn't even give an 
error message!"

...Chambers

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"andrel" <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote in message
news:487### [at] hotmailcom...

> I also like the MS solution of giving the error but no retry option (at
> least unto XP). Works great when copying lots of files and after 10
> minutes one of the last ones encounters a disk full.

Ah yes, one of the truly great GUI designs. I also like the omission of "yes
to all" button, to save precious screen estate no doubt. Speaking of which,
the ellipsis were a great invention too, as are small, fixed size dialog
boxes - after all, I paid good money for my 24" screen and cluttering the
beautiful desktop background image with those ugly filenames would be a
virtual crime. On the matter of dialogs, I find it a masterful touch of
uncertainity, when one window disappears but the next takes its sweet time
to appear, that seems to be the trend with recent applications, especially
installers. Installers provide another amusing touch when they spawn
multiple windows during the process. I particularly like the non-modal ones
that cleverly hide each other due to strategic placement. It's always so
exiciting to slide over the top one and experiment with different orderings
of component installations. The hardware manufacturers are also keeping up
with the latest advances in software development. My new laptop has close to
two dozen LEDs. I don't think I'll need a Christmas tree this year. Nor do I
need a mirror, for I can shave perfectly fine staring at the screen, which,
in addition to being absolutely beautiful, was even almost readable 800 feet
down in an abandoned mineshaft, after I placed about two dozen little strips
of black tape over the keyboard and the case. One amazes at the advances in
the science of ergonomics.

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