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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
Try this simple technique to write messages that help users understand the reason for errors.
The first time a user encounters an application's documentation, it's not always with the user manual or online help. Often, that first encounter with documentation is an error message.
Technical writers should be involved in writing error messages. It's an important, although often overlooked, part of the job. After all, error messages are documentation, albeit documentation that's embedded in the code.
[...] An error message should be meaningful. By that, I mean full of meaning not only for a developer, but also for the user of the software. To prevent any panic or confusion, the message should be clear.
A meaningful error message should:
- be short (you can write in sentence fragments);
- contain a description, in plain language, of what went wrong; and
- use wording or a tone that doesn't (whether explicitly or not) blame the user.
Source: https://opensource.com/article/17/8/write-effective-error-messages
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday August 18 2017, @08:23PM
I'm not sure, but you seem to be suggesting tagging a certain error with a common error code. That is, many users might get a U13AK error.
I was thinking that each time the exception is thrown, a new code is generated, and logged with the exception. That way when a user calls with code U13AK, what you are researching is that specific occurrence of the exception. You can look up other occurrences of the same exception by the class and line number that threw the exception.
This might confuse users. But maybe generate both a common, and a unique error code. So all users who do this particular thing get an ID10T, but the one time it happened right now, the user got a U13AK along with it. It's like ID10T would be associated with the location in the code where the exception is thrown.
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