On 6/6/06, David Van Couvering <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
(snip)
IMHO, clear error messages are KEY to acceptance in production
environments...
...I would love to see an approach where error messages are regularly
reviewed by the tech pubs folks, and preferably our users, and go
through a process of getting revised.
I also think it would be good to have guidelines for writing error
messages...
...I'd be happy to (a) start a Wiki with guidelines for writing error
messages and (b) participate in any kind of review we make of the error
messages. If you want to drive this error message review, Halley, that
would be *great*.
(end snip)
*** (LS) I agree. Clear messages are essential. As David points out, the messages need to say what the problem is, and how the user can resolve it. I am interested in helping review the existing messages and establishing guidelines for future messages.
*** (LS) Does anyone know how many messages there are in Derby? What is the best way to locate the text of the messages so that we can prep them for review?
Laura
Halley Pacheco de Oliveira wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm translating the file java/engine/org/apache/derby/loc/messages_en.properties and sometimes,
> when I can't understand the meaning of a message, I search for the message in the source code to
> discover it's meaning.
>
> The issue DERBY-1376 was open because I couldn't see any problem with the fact that "Log directory
> exists". The existence of a directory is not a problem by itself. When reading the source code in
> LogToFile.java file I saw the comment "// make sure log directory is empty", and the message being
> showed only if the log directory is not empty, not if it exists.
>
> I know it is a minor problem, almost insignificant, but I'm also having problems with others
> messages when translating them.
>
> For example, message "XIE06.S=Entity name was null." wasn't clear for me too, and when I looked at
> the source code I saw the comment "Raised if, the entity (ie table/view) for import/export is
> missing in the database.". So, again, the comment in the source code is easier to understand than
> the message being showed to the user. There are others like this one as, for example, for the
> message " XIE05.S=Data file cannot be null." the comment in the source code is "Raised if, null is
> passed for data file url."
>
> For me the biggest problem to overcome has being the translation of the message " XBM08.D=Could not
> instantiage {0} StorageFactory class {1}." I just can't understand the meaning of this telegraphic
> message even reading the source code, shown below, and would appreciate if someone could explain
> it to me.
>
> private PersistentService getPersistentService( final String className, String subSubProtocol)
> throws StandardException
> {
> if( className == null)
> return null;
> Class storageFactoryClass = null;
> try
> {
> storageFactoryClass = Class.forName( className);
> }
> catch (Throwable e)
> {
> throw StandardException.newException( SQLState.INSTANTIATE_STORAGE_FACTORY_ERROR ,
> e,
> subSubProtocol, className);
> }
> return new StorageFactoryService( subSubProtocol, storageFactoryClass);
> } // end of getPersistentService
>
> The reason for me to write this email is to ask if someone at ASF revised these messages, and if
> someone agrees that it would be good to revise these messages, since they are all that end users
> have.
>
> Thanks,
> Halley
>
>
>
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--
Laura Stewart
