Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • World
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (No Skin)
  • No Skin
Collapse
Code Project
  1. Home
  2. Other Discussions
  3. The Weird and The Wonderful
  4. Most Unhelpful Message Ever

Most Unhelpful Message Ever

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Weird and The Wonderful
learning
48 Posts 30 Posters 0 Views 1 Watching
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • N NickPace

    My head hurts from banging it on my desk. Just came across this beauty in the 'else' statement of some code I'm debugging (not mine, of course): MessageBox.Show("Should never get this message."); :doh:

    -NP Never underestimate the creativity of the end-user.

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

    I did something similar in a C project while at college which had the message "Bo*****s it shouldn't get here!" and I forgot to take it out when I submitted it.

    Every day, thousands of innocent plants are killed by vegetarians. Help end the violence EAT BACON

    1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • N NickPace

      My head hurts from banging it on my desk. Just came across this beauty in the 'else' statement of some code I'm debugging (not mine, of course): MessageBox.Show("Should never get this message."); :doh:

      -NP Never underestimate the creativity of the end-user.

      R Offline
      R Offline
      RafagaX
      wrote on last edited by
      #19

      NickPace wrote:

      Should never get this message.

      I prefer "If you see this, there is something terribly wrong."

      CEO at: - Rafaga Systems - Para Facturas - Modern Components for the moment...

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • N NickPace

        My head hurts from banging it on my desk. Just came across this beauty in the 'else' statement of some code I'm debugging (not mine, of course): MessageBox.Show("Should never get this message."); :doh:

        -NP Never underestimate the creativity of the end-user.

        U Offline
        U Offline
        User 9328955
        wrote on last edited by
        #20

        Well, this is not a message seen in a piece of software being debugged or modified... does anybody remember that useless message "Keyboard not found. Press F1 to continue." that old BIOS (AMI, I believe) used to show when they could not detect a keyboard? A long time ago, but I've seen them in old 386's and 486's. I know, I know, that was last century. ;)

        I C P 3 Replies Last reply
        0
        • N NickPace

          My head hurts from banging it on my desk. Just came across this beauty in the 'else' statement of some code I'm debugging (not mine, of course): MessageBox.Show("Should never get this message."); :doh:

          -NP Never underestimate the creativity of the end-user.

          D Offline
          D Offline
          DaveBurt
          wrote on last edited by
          #21

          Perhaps more unhelpful is an error message that was context related and then got copy-pasted into a totally unrelated function i.e "Error in function A!" when it is really in function B :^)

          P 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • Z ZurdoDev

            That's awesome. It's what happens when you feel you need a try but have no clue what to do in the event it ever does fail. Also, it could be that if the developers ever saw it then they knew some approach was not working and could fix it but assumed their approach was right and therefore should never see it.

            There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

            M Offline
            M Offline
            Member 4608898
            wrote on last edited by
            #22

            I have gotten some of those before. Had a look at the code and can't see how it could possibly get there. Normally it is an indication that something has gone awry. Possibly stack corruption or something like that. The thing is they don't normally print the if or case bits so you haven't a clue how it got there.

            1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • U User 9328955

              Well, this is not a message seen in a piece of software being debugged or modified... does anybody remember that useless message "Keyboard not found. Press F1 to continue." that old BIOS (AMI, I believe) used to show when they could not detect a keyboard? A long time ago, but I've seen them in old 386's and 486's. I know, I know, that was last century. ;)

              I Offline
              I Offline
              IndifferentDisdain
              wrote on last edited by
              #23

              I've seen that one derided before, and I honestly don't think it's that bad. I read it as "your keyboard isn't plugged in, dolt. When you decide to plug it in, press F1, and I'll continue to do my thing." Maybe they should have phrased it as such.

              U 1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • I IndifferentDisdain

                I've seen that one derided before, and I honestly don't think it's that bad. I read it as "your keyboard isn't plugged in, dolt. When you decide to plug it in, press F1, and I'll continue to do my thing." Maybe they should have phrased it as such.

                U Offline
                U Offline
                User 9328955
                wrote on last edited by
                #24

                Yes, I agree. Nevertheless, the couple of times I saw this the message itself was useless. Once, the keyboard didn't work and the other was unplugged, but plugging it didn't work until turning off and on...

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • N NickPace

                  My head hurts from banging it on my desk. Just came across this beauty in the 'else' statement of some code I'm debugging (not mine, of course): MessageBox.Show("Should never get this message."); :doh:

                  -NP Never underestimate the creativity of the end-user.

                  A Offline
                  A Offline
                  Andy Brummer
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #25

                  I worked with a guy that would litter his code with assert(Date.Now < [next tuesday]), so that he would remember to remove his debug code before it hit production except when he released his assert statements to production. :-D

                  Curvature of the Mind now with 3D

                  A P 2 Replies Last reply
                  0
                  • A Andy Brummer

                    I worked with a guy that would litter his code with assert(Date.Now < [next tuesday]), so that he would remember to remove his debug code before it hit production except when he released his assert statements to production. :-D

                    Curvature of the Mind now with 3D

                    A Offline
                    A Offline
                    Argonia
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #26

                    Hm, if i remember correct in c++ even if you have asserts in the code in build due of the compiler optimizations they don't get executed with validate . I don't see the problem with putting asserts and validates in code

                    Microsoft ... the only place where VARIANT_TRUE != true

                    P 1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • N NickPace

                      My head hurts from banging it on my desk. Just came across this beauty in the 'else' statement of some code I'm debugging (not mine, of course): MessageBox.Show("Should never get this message."); :doh:

                      -NP Never underestimate the creativity of the end-user.

                      J Offline
                      J Offline
                      jeron1
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #27

                      At least it gives some indication of something, as opposed to an empty catch block grrrrrrr! :mad:

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • U User 9328955

                        Well, this is not a message seen in a piece of software being debugged or modified... does anybody remember that useless message "Keyboard not found. Press F1 to continue." that old BIOS (AMI, I believe) used to show when they could not detect a keyboard? A long time ago, but I've seen them in old 386's and 486's. I know, I know, that was last century. ;)

                        C Offline
                        C Offline
                        Chad3F
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #28

                        An even better 'hypothetical' error message:

                        Monitor not detected. Turn it on to continue.

                        B 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • N NickPace

                          My head hurts from banging it on my desk. Just came across this beauty in the 'else' statement of some code I'm debugging (not mine, of course): MessageBox.Show("Should never get this message."); :doh:

                          -NP Never underestimate the creativity of the end-user.

                          C Offline
                          C Offline
                          Chad3F
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #29

                          Could be worse.. something like (in C):

                          /* Should never get here */
                          exit(0);

                          Now there is a useful error message.. oh, wait! what message? :wtf: The sad thing is that a long time ago I came across a library that did this (just outright exited the program, rather than return an error code to the caller). :sigh:

                          P 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • N NickPace

                            Yeah, that's nice too. I've also come across several completely empty catch statements. Those are fun to debug: "Error? What error?"

                            -NP Never underestimate the creativity of the end-user.

                            J Offline
                            J Offline
                            James Lonero
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #30

                            This is probably because the programmer didn't know how to handle the error or what to do with it.

                            L 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • N NickPace

                              Yeah, that's nice too. I've also come across several completely empty catch statements. Those are fun to debug: "Error? What error?"

                              -NP Never underestimate the creativity of the end-user.

                              L Offline
                              L Offline
                              Lutoslaw
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #31

                              Here on Code Project somebody made an excellent point about empty catches: This piece of code

                              try {
                              SaveUserData();
                              }
                              catch
                              {
                              }

                              is equivalent to:

                              try {
                              //SaveUserData(); -- if it can fail silently, then why care?
                              }
                              catch
                              {
                              }

                              Greetings - Jacek

                              N P 2 Replies Last reply
                              0
                              • J James Lonero

                                This is probably because the programmer didn't know how to handle the error or what to do with it.

                                L Offline
                                L Offline
                                Lutoslaw
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #32

                                All programming is about handling errors. A whole life is about handling errors, actually. I bet the programmer was a no-lifer. ;)

                                Greetings - Jacek

                                P 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • L Lutoslaw

                                  Here on Code Project somebody made an excellent point about empty catches: This piece of code

                                  try {
                                  SaveUserData();
                                  }
                                  catch
                                  {
                                  }

                                  is equivalent to:

                                  try {
                                  //SaveUserData(); -- if it can fail silently, then why care?
                                  }
                                  catch
                                  {
                                  }

                                  Greetings - Jacek

                                  N Offline
                                  N Offline
                                  NickPace
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #33

                                  Wow, this post's timing is perfect. I've been tracking down a bug this morning where data is not being saved to a database table when it should be (in the same code that started this thread). It came down to an error being thrown by the database, but caught in an empty catch statement. As frustrating as that is, it has been going on for a couple of years...nobody seemed to care until now, so why bother?

                                  -NP Never underestimate the creativity of the end-user.

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • C Chad3F

                                    An even better 'hypothetical' error message:

                                    Monitor not detected. Turn it on to continue.

                                    B Offline
                                    B Offline
                                    Brisingr Aerowing
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #34

                                    A message like that actually exists in the BIOS firmware. :doh: (Actually saw it once. On the monitor. :doh: )

                                    brisingr_aerowing@Gryphon-PC $ rake in_the_dough Raking in the dough brisingr_aerowing@Gryphon-PC $ make lots_of_money Making lots_of_money

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • Richard DeemingR Richard Deeming

                                      I can beat that - some code I was asked to help with had hundreds of methods where a database query was wrapped with:

                                      try
                                      {
                                      // Some code here...
                                      }
                                      catch (Exception exception) // Gotta catch 'em all!
                                      {
                                      // Take a string property, convert it to a string, and then throw it away:
                                      exception.Message.ToString();

                                      // Throw away any meaningful information from the exception,
                                      // and replace it with a mis-spelled pile of elephant dung:
                                      throw new Exception("Exception occured");
                                      }

                                      Needless to say, every call to one of these methods was wrapped with:

                                      try
                                      {
                                      // Do a whole bunch of stuff...
                                      CallTheQueryMethod();
                                      // Do a load more crap...
                                      }
                                      catch (Exception exception)
                                      {
                                      // Tell the user something bad happened:
                                      MessageBox.Show(this, exception.Message);
                                      }


                                      "These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer

                                      E Offline
                                      E Offline
                                      ExcellentOrg
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #35

                                      Hmmmm I was once interviewed by a person who had asked me "Why are Exceptions Bad?".... Without catching the drift of his tone, I replied "I don't think Exception are bad" .... Interview ended few seconds after that I guess I was lucky that I did not get the Job!!!

                                      P 1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • N NickPace

                                        My head hurts from banging it on my desk. Just came across this beauty in the 'else' statement of some code I'm debugging (not mine, of course): MessageBox.Show("Should never get this message."); :doh:

                                        -NP Never underestimate the creativity of the end-user.

                                        B Offline
                                        B Offline
                                        BillW33
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #36

                                        Sadly, I have seen too much code like that. Having a useless message is marginally more useful than having nothing there. :sigh:

                                        Just because the code works, it doesn't mean that it is good code.

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • N NickPace

                                          My head hurts from banging it on my desk. Just came across this beauty in the 'else' statement of some code I'm debugging (not mine, of course): MessageBox.Show("Should never get this message."); :doh:

                                          -NP Never underestimate the creativity of the end-user.

                                          P Offline
                                          P Offline
                                          pasztorpisti
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #37

                                          In my C/C++ code I often write similar things: assert statements. ASSERT -> "It should never happen that the specified expression evaluates to false". Of course ASSERT is usually compiled only into some non-release configurations. I use different kind of assert statements, I call one of these the "This should never happen" assert: This is an assert that always fires unconditionally with a specified message when executed. For example assert_message("Unhandled EMode enum member");

                                          enum EMode
                                          {
                                          EMode_mode1,
                                          EMode_mode3,
                                          };

                                          void Func(EMode mode)
                                          {
                                          switch (mode)
                                          {
                                          case EMode_mode1:
                                          // blah blah
                                          break;
                                          case EMode_mode2:
                                          // blah blah
                                          break;
                                          default:
                                          assert_message("Unhandled EMode enum member!");
                                          break;
                                          }
                                          }

                                          If someone extends the enum with a new member (and lets say the functions that use the enum are not next to the enum in your files) and some codepieces are not updated along with the enum then at least you get a runtime error sooner or later in non-release builds. Of course there are a lot of other places where "This should never happen" asserts are useful.

                                          1 Reply Last reply
                                          0
                                          Reply
                                          • Reply as topic
                                          Log in to reply
                                          • Oldest to Newest
                                          • Newest to Oldest
                                          • Most Votes


                                          • Login

                                          • Don't have an account? Register

                                          • Login or register to search.
                                          • First post
                                            Last post
                                          0
                                          • Categories
                                          • Recent
                                          • Tags
                                          • Popular
                                          • World
                                          • Users
                                          • Groups