[166286] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: REMINDER: Error messages should include parameters
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Laurence F. Sheldon, Jr.)
Tue Oct 15 18:26:20 2013
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 17:23:01 -0500
From: "Laurence F. Sheldon, Jr." <larrysheldon@cox.net>
To: nanog@nanog.org
In-Reply-To: <daJF1m0011Una3W01aJGiu>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
On 10/15/2013 17:17, Jay Ashworth wrote:
> Off the Yahoo MX discussion, just a reminder for those who write code:
>
> *Always* include the parameters in the error message; pronouns and
> implicit references are Evil, Bad and Wrong. The 30 seconds you take to
> add the actual name of what you can't find/talk to could save some sysadmin
> *weeks* (I am not making that up; something once took me weeks).
>
> We now return you to your normal router configuration conversations.
Back in the day we only had room for about 4 digits--but there was a
your-longevity-here-is-dependent-on-it binder for every run-unit that
listed every error code in numerical order that gave a narrative
description of what had failed AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT.
Seems like the massive stores we have available now days that we could
do at least as well.
