RE: Uncaught Errors in Interactive Programs and the Users that Ignore the Errors

-----Original Message-----
[mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mike
Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2010 08:34
Subject: Uncaught Errors in Interactive Programs and the
Users that Ignore the Errors

I am growing tired of this. An error pops up, the user hits
'C' to cancel
the program then tries again. Maybe this time it worked, so
they continue on
with their job. The next day, "Why is my data not here?" So

The subject of the original post should have been "Uncaught errors... and the programmers how inflict them on users". The programmer is giving the user the option to reply, so how can the programmer complain if the user makes an inappropriate choice when asked to reply to a message the user cannot be expected to ever have the ability to make the 'correct' choice?

How you handle this is don't have unhandled exceptions. For starters, it is relatively simple (especially with ILE exception percolation) to code an exception handler in the application entry point that generically handles the application-ended-on-an-unexpected-error-condition situation. Even if the application just exits, that is better than the inappropriate inquiry message being presented to the user.

This simplistic patch may or may not be acceptable for your application. It can take a lot of careful planning to repair non-existent or poorly designed exception handling in a non-trivial application.

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