Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!cunyvm!uupsi!rodan!wwtaroli
From: wwtaroli@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Bill Taroli)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Some Human Interface (was: System Error = 03)
Message-ID: <2017@rodan.acs.syr.edu>
Date: 7 Feb 90 21:14:02 GMT
References: <1990Feb4.224159.26586@athena.mit.edu> <2820@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu> <886@gistdev.gist.com>
Reply-To: wwtaroli@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Bill Taroli)
Organization: Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Lines: 46

In article <886@gistdev.gist.com> joe@gistdev.gist.com (Joe Brownlee) writes:
>In article <2820@cunixc.cc.columbia.edu> cmm1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu
>(Christopher M Mauritz) writes:
>>What does this mean?  I keep getting System Error #03 and a crash [...]
>
>For a machine that is based on friendliness and ease of use, the the error
>handling capabilities of the Mac OS are dismal.  How many messages do we see
>here asking for info on bomb IDs, file I/O errors, or Sad Mac codes?  Doesn't
>that say something about this whole issue?  Wouldn't this be something that
>could be improved relatively easily?

Well, in defense of the Mac OS I would like to mention that I agree that the
issue of using space in the ROMs for static text simply for error messages
is important.  Yes, it would be nice to have a cute little message telling you
that the program you were just using ran out of memory (which would be cryptic
in itself since it doesn't tell you WHY, and shouldn't be expected to in my
opinion) but the cost/benefit ratio probably would suggest that it not be done.
That is, would you like Apple to wire in another ROM or two to add these
messages (thereby increasing the price, and with Apple's history this increase
would probably be substantial) and really not know much more than you did with
the numbers.  True, the textual message can be more revealing but only to a
certain extent.  Those people interested in knowing why the crash occured will
more than likely have the technical knowledge (and documentation) to figure the
error number out.  For those that don't, it probably doesn't matter... and it
shouldn't have to (which is the whole strategy behind the Mac).

Of course, this could lead to the question "If a non-technical user doesn't
need to know why a crash occured then why have any message appear at all?  Why
not just have the system restart?".  To this I would reply that it would likely
not do too much for the reliabilty rating of the Mac... would you like your
system to simply restart on its own after a crash without at least giving some
indication that a problem occured?  I know I wouldn't.  Of course, if more
people spent more time learning about program proving and metrics (and followed
Apple's recommendations more closely) then occurences such as these would be
less likely to occur.

Oh well, that's my two bytes.

Bill Taroli
WWTAROLI@RODAN.acs.syr.edu

--
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* Bill Taroli (WWTAROLI@RODAN.acs.syr.edu)    | "You can and must understand  *
* Syracuse University, Syracuse NY            | computers NOW!" -- Ted Nelson *
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