On Sat, 27 Feb 2021 at 01:38, Tim via users <users@lists.fedoraproject.org> wrote:
On Fri, 2021-02-26 at 13:53 -0400, George N. White III wrote:
> At some point, RFC's need to address error reporting and diagnostics.
> There is also Java, which spews out 10^2 lines of tracing data with
> nothing to highlight the line that has the key to the problem.
>
> I suspect the compiler work was driven by academia wanting to reduce
> the amount of time wasted in student training to deal with useless
> error messages. 
>
> With much of linux development being done by companies that sell
> support, better error reporting would make it easier for
> organizations to decide they don't need to pay for support.

I remember one of our lecturers are college commenting how their Data
General mainframe put out such a large amount of information in the
error messages that it's almost too user friendly.

However, as well as the explanatory comment that you could actually
read and understand, it would pop up the offending line of code with
the error and park the cursor either at the last point it could cope
with, or the first point it objected to (I can't remember back 25+
years).  It did make it a lot easier to debug than computers that spew
up:  error #456.865 your turn, now...

Reminds me of the opaque error code that a friend's Windows computer
spewed up when it fell into a nervous breakdown during an attempted
update, and nothing further could be done with it until we fixed the
unknowable error.  We had to look up the code on another computer, and
all the damn thing wanted was for us to correctly set the clock.  It
could have said that.  It could have set the clock itself, it was
online (and if windows used GMT/UTC it wouldn't matter what the
timezone was).

Global businesses are driven by creating large ecosystems that
depend on the success of the business's products.  Microsoft, Sony,
Samsung, Apple, Deere, Caterpillar, auto makers, Airbus, and Boeing
all are examples.

Opaque error codes are a key element in the commercial success of the
Windows ecosystem.  A huge number of IT support staff with certifications
in Windows admin are paid to do many trivial tasks because they were
taught to deal with opaque error codes.  The same staff recommend
Windows to management even when there are much better solutions
to a problem with linux or macOS.  It also explains why Microsoft often
makes gratuitous tweaks to standard protocols.

--
George N. White III