The worst error message ever, ever

[dieguzzo]

On Windows 98 while doing a very dangerous operations (something regarding the file system, so very destructive :laugh: ), an empty message box appeared with a question icon and two button: Yes No... this is the worst error message! You know something bad has happened, you don't know what the remedy was proposed by W98 :wtf:

[Lost User]

That's cute. Reminds me of one from a cryptic UNIX GUI in the 1990s:

+----------------------+
| Error 0 |
+----------------------+
| |
| No error text for "" |
| |
+----------------------+

[Lost User]

From TeX, the geeky typesetting program:

Sorry, Pandora. (You sneaky devil)
Pretend you are Hercule Poirot: examine all the clues.

[lognormal]

Yes! This happened on booting old IBM XTs. If I recall it said Keyboard error Press F1 to continue Maybe it was some laid back engineer's sense of humour?

Why make life more difficult than it is?

[Jeremy Hutchinson]

The worst I ever came across was from Quadbase (a 90's database system).

Should never get here.

At that point we knew we had really f-ed up the database.

[Gary Huck]

That could qualify as the 'best' or 'favorite' error. Ya gotta have a sense of humor in this biz.

[loyal ginger]

At least the message told you something relating to the error. Years back I had a program that wrote data to Microsoft Access database tables. One day it quit working and gave this error message: "Invalid arguments." I scratched my head for a while trying to figure out what that meant. Finally I noticed that the size of the Access file is dangerously high (2GB). That was when I changed my app to use MySql.

[BobJanova]

This one actually makes sense, it makes sure you fixed the error (by plugging in a keyboard) before continuing.

[robsonpg]

Delphi 5: "Catastrophic error." in a single message box with a ok button. Simple! Amazing! :))

[Konstardiy from Tbilisi]

The worst message for me is no message at all: one time i got a error meeeage box with empty text, just error icon and "Error" caption with OK button. I don't remember where i got it, it was a log time ago, but this was the worst "error message i seen:)

[Lost User]

No mouse found message[^]

[BrainiacV]

Oracle 7

Bad END statement

The problem was, "Label not found," I guess since it found the END statement before finding the label, it was the END statement's fault. I used to wallpaper my cube with bad error messages from Oracle and a note saying what they really meant.

Psychosis at 10 Film at 11 Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it. Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.

[applogic]

Watermark, a late 90's content management product, had an error message that read... "Thank You Sir, may I have another?"

[Monalot]

A few years ago I was developing a financial app. I asked my boss what the program should do if a particular condition arose. He replied that it couldn't happen so, don't worry about it. I put the following message in the program: "If you get this message, call my bosses name and home phone number". He received middle of the night calls for years.

[Peter R Fletcher]

DEC's RT-11 OS (I'm showing my age) also had a text-based Help system. You typed: 'Help [Command Name]' at the command line, and you got a screen of text, usually with things like command line options. If [Command Name] was not recognised, you got back the single line: 'There is no Help for [Command Name]'. The programmer had a sense of humor. If you typed: 'Help Me', you got back: 'There is no Help for you'!

[Bminas]

I remember that! They also had error number 69 - no path to partner in their RSX system. Early networking.

[Gregg Lobdell]

A bad synonym for the "garbage collection" phase of memory management perhaps?

[KChandos]

One of my favorite error messages comes from the mainframe world in the Natural environment from Software AG. Natural makes the attempt to not only tell you what's wrong, but what you may be able to do to fix the problem. I don't remember the exact text of the message but it was something along the lines of "an error has occurred". The memorable part is the suggested fix: "Check program and correct".

[kmoorevs]

My first computer book ever was call "Sad Macs, Bombs, and Other Disasters". I had inherited a powermac 6100 with system 7.5. I really enjoyed all the bomb icons complete with an error number...how informative!

"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse

[Mikel Taylor]

While a greenie, the following code was (accidentally) released into production: Messagebox: Title "Oops" Message: "Mikel Sucks as a programmer since this should never happen."