[Pidgin] #4931: "Unknown error" message is uninformative and unhelpful.

[Pidgin]

#4931: "Unknown error" message is uninformative and unhelpful.
---------------------------+------------------------------------------------
  Reporter:  Vadi          |       Owner:  lschiere     
      Type:  enhancement   |      Status:  new          
  Priority:  minor         |   Milestone:               
 Component:  unclassified  |     Version:  2.3.1        
Resolution:                |    Keywords:  unknown error
   Pending:  1             |  
---------------------------+------------------------------------------------
Changes (by Vadi):

  * pending:  1 => 0

Comment:

 Nono, it's not a bug, don't worry about it.


 {{{
 (09:51:44 PM) Vadi: I do wish Pidgin was more informative in errors though
 (09:52:59 PM) nosnilmot: you tried to add the same contact again (to the
 same group?) and it reported an unknown error?
 (09:53:58 PM) seanegan: Vadi: It told you it didn't know what the error
 was: how can it be more informative if it doesn't know what's wrong?
 (09:54:36 PM) nosnilmot: seanegan: heuristics!
 (09:56:21 PM) Vadi: nosnilmot: I can't replicate the problem anymore, but
 maybe that's because the contact is on now. I did run into this "unknown
 error" on several occasions today though (but I never had it before), so
 something might be up with the servers. In any case, it should place the
 blame on the server (or whatever), not look silly and report an "unknown
 error"
 (09:57:42 PM) nosnilmot: heh, I wouldn't support that though, unless we
 can actually pin the blame on the server
 (09:58:16 PM) Vadi: nosnilmot: well, I'm certainly not a happy user when I
 can't diagnose the problem or know what to do at all.
 (09:58:52 PM) nosnilmot: and you'd be happier if we said "it's AOL's
 fault" than when we say "we don't know quite what went wrong" ?
 (10:01:31 PM) nosnilmot: maybe it should say, in addition, "if you're able
 to reproduce this error, and willing to help diagnose the cause, please
 join us on irc in #pidgin on freenode.net", but you already did that
 without prompting
 (10:02:47 PM) Vadi: nosnilmot: You don't say you don't know what went
 wrong. It's just "unknown error". If it even said "An error has occurred,
 but we don't quite know what went wrong." that would be better. But I'm
 not sure how can you tell what went wrong to begin with, if you know an
 error happened. If it's something that's outside Pidgin that just said
 "unknown error", then, say that told it. Or you try and diagnose to give
 the user a clue.
 (10:02:47 PM) Vadi:
 (10:02:47 PM) Vadi: And I only joined here because I tried adding a
 contact a bunch of times and each time it said "unknown error", at which
 point I was really unhappy. It's worse than Google's "Error code
 dfsdf807AES has occured." messages.
 (10:02:55 PM) seanegan: Maybe it should say, "We couldn't add this buddy
 and we don't know why because we're all giant morons. If we were smarter,
 we'd surely know the cause, but as it is, it's a mystery to us. If you
 know why this error occurred, good for you. You're surely smarter than
 us."
 (10:03:41 PM) Vadi: seanegan: Well, what about the 1000 buddies limit? Is
 it an AIM limit, or Pidgin?
 (10:03:52 PM) seanegan: AIM
 (10:03:57 PM) nosnilmot: Vadi: you really think "we don't quite know what
 went wrong" is better than "unknown error" ?
 (10:04:01 PM) elb: doesn't an unknown error pretty much mean we don't know
 what went wrong?
 (10:04:21 PM) seanegan: elb: I think "unknown error" makes it sound like
 we didn't even try.
 (10:04:23 PM) ***elb leaves this in nosnilmot's hands
 (10:04:25 PM) Vadi: seanegan: Great, then say, 'AIM has given an unkown
 error.'
 (10:04:45 PM) elb: seanegan: well, if the shoe fits ...
 (10:04:46 PM) seanegan: You know, if "we don't quite know what went
 wrong," you know we at least looked into it
 (10:04:46 PM) Vadi: Because as it stands, I was thinking that Pidgin was
 being stupid.
 (10:04:47 PM) nosnilmot: Vadi: but it didn't give an error, we don't know
 what went wrong
 (10:05:11 PM) Vadi: nosnilmot: AIM didn't do what it was supposed to do.
 Say that at least in a pleasing form.
 (10:05:18 PM) elb: we don't know that
 (10:05:22 PM) elb: we might have tried to do something unreasonable
 (10:05:26 PM) nosnilmot: Vadi: how do you know that?
 (10:05:29 PM) seanegan: That's actually more likely.
 (10:05:30 PM) seanegan: by far
 (10:05:58 PM) elb: we should just pop up a dialog that says "Worked: no"
 (10:06:04 PM) nosnilmot: yeah, pidgin is often stupid, because we have no
 way of knowing what is the right thing to do in many cases
 (10:06:18 PM) nosnilmot: elb: hell yeah!
 (10:07:10 PM) seanegan: We should just make a big array of silly error
 messages and pick one at random.
 (10:07:17 PM) seanegan: Printer on fire.
 (10:07:18 PM) sadrul: doesn't something give a 'Failure: success' message
 on error?
 (10:07:30 PM) elb: I've gotten the printer on fire message
 (10:07:35 PM) elb: sadrul: yeah, Windows
 (10:07:48 PM) sadrul: hah!
 (10:07:50 PM) elb: there's some stuff Windows doesn't set errno for that
 we used to check via errno
 (10:07:52 PM) elb: or something
 (10:08:15 PM) seanegan: that's what you get if you call strerror(0), then?
 (10:08:22 PM) elb: yeah
 (10:08:48 PM) elb: or g_strerror
 (10:08:48 PM) nosnilmot: evolution is doing an astoundingly good job at
 competing with outlook, I frequently get "Error: success" from it
 (10:08:49 PM) elb: or something
 (10:09:27 PM) seanegan: How about "couldn't delete file: not enough disk
 space"?
 (10:09:35 PM) Vadi: Well, have fun guys. I appreciate the work you did,
 but hope Pidgin doesn't end up in thedailywtf.com's "Error'd" section.
 (10:09:36 PM) elb: Worked: no
 (10:09:47 PM) seanegan: Vadi: Been there. Done that
 (10:09:56 PM) Vadi: Pity.
 }}}


 It's all fine and well. My mistake.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/4931#comment:4>
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