lkml.org 
[lkml]   [1999]   [Jun]   [10]   [last100]   RSS Feed
Views: [wrap][no wrap]   [headers]  [forward] 
 
Messages in this thread
/
Date
From
SubjectRe: Profanity in the Linux Kernel?!?!?
Hi Michael.

> Hm. Which would you rather have in YOUR kernel?

> "Fatal Exception 0E at address 349f930d:020a34ff"

> Or

> "Something fucked up. This shouldn't happen."
> "oops 00"

> Personally, I'd rather see something say "Something fucked up"
> and maybe a description of it, in HUMAN READABLE terms (e.g.,
> readable by non-programmers and CS majors) as opposed to "fatal
> exception 0E..." which really tells a user NOTHING about what
> just happened.

To be honest, you've asked the wrong question, so can I ask the
correct one for you?

Q> Assuming that you are an intelligent human being working in
Q> an office where you get to use computers on a daily basis as
Q> part of your job, but (a) the computer is just one of many
Q> tools you use as part of your job, and (b) English is not
Q> your first language, but one you learned as an adult, which
Q> of the above example messages would you find easiest to work
Q> with?

To put that in context, a friend of mine works for a travel agent, and
his first language is Gaelic (the native language of Scotland), but he
has learned English in recent years. I showed him your message, and he
freely admitted that the latter example message was meaningless to
him. However, the former is of a form he is more than used to seeing
at work as WIndows 98 regularly displays messages of that form, and he
thus knows exactly what to do when he sees a message of that form.

Best wishes from Riley.

+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| There is something frustrating about the quality and speed of Linux |
| development, ie., the quality is too high and the speed is too high, |
| in other words, I can implement this XXXX feature, but I bet someone |
| else has already done so and is just about to release their patch. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* ftp://ftp.MemAlpha.cx/pub/rhw/Linux
* http://www.MemAlpha.cx/kernel.versions.html


-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/

\
 
 \ /
  Last update: 2005-03-22 13:52    [W:0.077 / U:0.524 seconds]
©2003-2020 Jasper Spaans|hosted at Digital Ocean and TransIP|Read the blog|Advertise on this site