RE: Writing error messages? (longish)

Subject: RE: Writing error messages? (longish)
From: "Harry Bacheler" <hbacheler -at- geo -dot- census -dot- gov>
To: "Aoidìn Scully" <ascully -at- flexicom -dot- com>, "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2000 14:15:57 -0500

Yes.

But tell the user what wrong information was entered,
and provide a list (if possible) of the valid information.

Otherwise, refer them to the User's Guide, system Notification Guide,
etc., Help information, etc.

For instance:

You entered "A". The correct input for this field is "F", "G", or "H".

You entered all numbers "2000/02/01" in this field. The expected input was
"Feb 01, 2000"

System Notification: 3451. Refer to the "System Notification Guide" for
assistance.

(Been there, done that, in assembler, no less)


Harry M. Bacheler, Jr.
Consultant
VGS, Inc.

"The thoughts, ideas, and opinions expressed in my portion
of this email are mine and mine alone. They are not the
thoughts, ideas, and/or opinions of any past, present, or
future employers, or any group that I might belong to."

> -----Original Message-----
> From: bounce-techwr-l-20951 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
> [mailto:bounce-techwr-l-20951 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]On Behalf Of Aoidìn
> Scully
> Sent: Wednesday, 01 March, 2000 10:29 AM
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: RE: Writing error messages? (longish)
>
>
> >>I am of the opinion that most (at least three-quarters) of
> "error" messages
> >>are really not errors in the first place. They are just
> inserting the wrong
> >>value in a field, or something to that effect.
>
> Call me picky...but isn't 'inserting the wrong value in a field' an
> error?
>
> ... snip, snip ...





Previous by Author: RE: IP addresses/domain names at the end of a sentence
Next by Author: RE: Release Notes
Previous by Thread: RE: Writing error messages? (longish)
Next by Thread: Re: Writing error messages? (longish)


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads