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  3. Is there really such thing as an unknown error?

Is there really such thing as an unknown error?

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  • V Vasily Tserekh

    I guess some function return a number code wich tells which error ocurred and you have them mapped on your software but when the function return an error code(number) that you haven't mapped there is when you get that error

    D Offline
    D Offline
    David Crow
    wrote on last edited by
    #5

    But that would be an unhandled error.

    "One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson

    "Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons

    "Show me a community that obeys the Ten Commandments and I'll show you a less crowded prison system." - Anonymous

    V OriginalGriffO W 3 Replies Last reply
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    • S sisnaz

      One of my biggest pet peeves in the software industry is the infamous "An unknown error as occurred". How can this be?? Surely somebody knows something about it, otherwise why is it there? So I ask, is there REALLY such thing as an unknown error? I don't get why this has become the catch all of "I give up, something happened and I'm too lazy to figure out why"

      J Offline
      J Offline
      jschell
      wrote on last edited by
      #6

      The fact that you know about it doesn't mean that when I write the code that I will know about it. Also certain problems might be knowable, but that is not the same as known. Thus even though computers are deterministic for some problems it is not cost effective to determine the actual cause.

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      • D David Crow

        But that would be an unhandled error.

        "One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson

        "Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons

        "Show me a community that obeys the Ten Commandments and I'll show you a less crowded prison system." - Anonymous

        V Offline
        V Offline
        Vasily Tserekh
        wrote on last edited by
        #7

        REMEMBER THAT IS A PROGRAMMER THE PERSON WHO WRITE WHATEVER HE WANTS WHEN AN UNHANDLED ERROR OCURRS

        S 1 Reply Last reply
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        • S sisnaz

          One of my biggest pet peeves in the software industry is the infamous "An unknown error as occurred". How can this be?? Surely somebody knows something about it, otherwise why is it there? So I ask, is there REALLY such thing as an unknown error? I don't get why this has become the catch all of "I give up, something happened and I'm too lazy to figure out why"

          K Offline
          K Offline
          Keith Barrow
          wrote on last edited by
          #8

          Its where you are in trouble with your wife and you have to guess what is wrong, as she won't let you know (hence "unknown"). Take the case where she has dreamt that you cheated on her and gives you the silent treatment for a day or so, to pick an example purely at random. You are in error, but you don't know why!

          Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
          -Or-
          A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^]

          S R 2 Replies Last reply
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          • D David Crow

            But that would be an unhandled error.

            "One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson

            "Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons

            "Show me a community that obeys the Ten Commandments and I'll show you a less crowded prison system." - Anonymous

            OriginalGriffO Offline
            OriginalGriffO Offline
            OriginalGriff
            wrote on last edited by
            #9

            I disagree - you have detected the error, and analysed it to the best of your ability. Suppose you write code that uses a method in an external class that returns a integer error code, where 0 is ok (old fashioned DOS stylee) then detecting an non-zero is handling the error. If the class is updated to return an error code that wasn't in it when you wrote your software, then it is still an error, just an unknown one. You are handling it by reporting it and failing safe rather than continuing as if all was well.

            Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water

            "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
            "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

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            • K Keith Barrow

              Its where you are in trouble with your wife and you have to guess what is wrong, as she won't let you know (hence "unknown"). Take the case where she has dreamt that you cheated on her and gives you the silent treatment for a day or so, to pick an example purely at random. You are in error, but you don't know why!

              Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
              -Or-
              A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^]

              S Offline
              S Offline
              S Houghtelin
              wrote on last edited by
              #10

              Keith Barrow wrote:

              You are in error, but you don't know why!

              :laugh: More likely a result of poor error handling. In her mind the error is known, you are a man, which is along the lines of a divide by zero error. :sigh:

              It was broke, so I fixed it.

              B 1 Reply Last reply
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              • K Keith Barrow

                Its where you are in trouble with your wife and you have to guess what is wrong, as she won't let you know (hence "unknown"). Take the case where she has dreamt that you cheated on her and gives you the silent treatment for a day or so, to pick an example purely at random. You are in error, but you don't know why!

                Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
                -Or-
                A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^]

                R Offline
                R Offline
                R Giskard Reventlov
                wrote on last edited by
                #11

                Keith Barrow wrote:

                Take the case where she has dreamt that you cheated on her and gives you the silent treatment for a day or so

                Sounds like this just happened to you... :)

                "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me

                K 1 Reply Last reply
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                • S sisnaz

                  One of my biggest pet peeves in the software industry is the infamous "An unknown error as occurred". How can this be?? Surely somebody knows something about it, otherwise why is it there? So I ask, is there REALLY such thing as an unknown error? I don't get why this has become the catch all of "I give up, something happened and I'm too lazy to figure out why"

                  OriginalGriffO Offline
                  OriginalGriffO Offline
                  OriginalGriff
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #12

                  Suppose you write code that uses a method in an external class that returns a integer error code, where 0 is ok (old fashioned DOS stylee) then detecting an non-zero value is handling the error. Suppose you set up a switch to report a sensible error message from the error code as specified by the method spec. If the class is updated to return an error code that wasn't in it when you wrote your software, then it is still an error, just an unknown one. You are handling it by reporting it as an "unknown error" and failing safe rather than continuing as if all was well.

                  Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water

                  "I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
                  "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt

                  1 Reply Last reply
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                  • V Vasily Tserekh

                    REMEMBER THAT IS A PROGRAMMER THE PERSON WHO WRITE WHATEVER HE WANTS WHEN AN UNHANDLED ERROR OCURRS

                    S Offline
                    S Offline
                    Slacker007
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #13

                    What did you say!? I can't hear you very well.

                    "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
                    "No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "But you probably have the smoothest scrotum of any grown man" - Pete O'Hanlon (2012)

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                    • S S Houghtelin

                      Keith Barrow wrote:

                      You are in error, but you don't know why!

                      :laugh: More likely a result of poor error handling. In her mind the error is known, you are a man, which is along the lines of a divide by zero error. :sigh:

                      It was broke, so I fixed it.

                      B Offline
                      B Offline
                      Brisingr Aerowing
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #14

                      :laugh: :sigh:

                      All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value. Carl Sagan

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                      • D David Crow

                        But that would be an unhandled error.

                        "One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson

                        "Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons

                        "Show me a community that obeys the Ten Commandments and I'll show you a less crowded prison system." - Anonymous

                        W Offline
                        W Offline
                        W Balboos GHB
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #15

                        No - an unhandled error would (very often) cause the application to crash, typically with the message "unhandled error . . .") if your lucky enough to get a message. In other words, if we consider the error handling to be a try/catch scenario, there is no catch-all and none of the specific handlers catches it. in C++ we have a what is essentially a catch-all catch(...). An unknown error is, for example, one that is trapped but it's specific nature was not anticipated - but it would still be picked up by the catch-all for your particular language. But what it is is not necessarily know, which, we often refer to as "unknown". This also can be moved a notch to the O/S receiving something so obscure no one thought to make a handler or message for it, so the system throws the 'Unknown error", which, in turn is passed to the application, etc.

                        "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

                        "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert

                        "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010

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                        • S sisnaz

                          One of my biggest pet peeves in the software industry is the infamous "An unknown error as occurred". How can this be?? Surely somebody knows something about it, otherwise why is it there? So I ask, is there REALLY such thing as an unknown error? I don't get why this has become the catch all of "I give up, something happened and I'm too lazy to figure out why"

                          Mike HankeyM Offline
                          Mike HankeyM Offline
                          Mike Hankey
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #16

                          My youngest daughter? Oh you mean software...

                          VS2010/Atmel Studio 6.0 ToDo Manager Extension
                          Version 3.0 now available. There is no place like 127.0.0.1

                          S 1 Reply Last reply
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                          • R R Giskard Reventlov

                            Keith Barrow wrote:

                            Take the case where she has dreamt that you cheated on her and gives you the silent treatment for a day or so

                            Sounds like this just happened to you... :)

                            "If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me

                            K Offline
                            K Offline
                            Keith Barrow
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #17

                            Yep. I always liked the line in Dogma where Bethany's friend suggests she is soundint "a bit militant [about men]. You thinking of joining the other side?". Bethany replies "Couldn't do it, women are insane." You'd only get away with a line like this from a female character, but it was obviously written by a man.

                            Sort of a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Dilbert.[^]
                            -Or-
                            A Dead ringer for Kate Winslett[^]

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • Mike HankeyM Mike Hankey

                              My youngest daughter? Oh you mean software...

                              VS2010/Atmel Studio 6.0 ToDo Manager Extension
                              Version 3.0 now available. There is no place like 127.0.0.1

                              S Offline
                              S Offline
                              sisnaz
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #18

                              :laugh: Well in that case I have 5 unknown errors LOL!

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