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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 el_oscuro on Friday August 18 2017, @11:42PM
Just finished nuking systemd from my Kali box, and replacing it with sysinit.
The reason why? Shitty error handling. I installed Nvidia drivers for cuda support, and they appeared to install OK. After the reboot, no desktop, no SSH, nothing. Eventually I was able to boot into maintenance mode and remove the drivers. After rebooting again, I still couldn't get my desktop and I got:
systemd.logind failed to start. please run systemctl status systemd.logind for more info.
Running the systemctl status systemd.logind command:
"systemd.login failed to start"
I couldn't even get anything meaningful with stack trace, and google was no help. So I nuked it from orbit just to be sure.
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