abadideathis is how I feel when a program’s output is written like “I could not find the file” instead of “file not found”
Tachibana Kanade@0xabad1dea I wonder if earlier computer users had this complaint for all plain-text error messages that weren’t like “ERROR 54” that you then had to go and look up in the manual.
@h0m54r I don’t want the error to be uselessly terse. I just don’t want it yapping on like it’s a sentient being with ethical standing
@0xabad1dea Oh, I don’t disagree—sorry for derailing your point with a tangential hypothetical musing
Lunar 🛸 ♾@0xabad1dea Or, even better, "we couldn't find the file"
niconiconi
Spitfire@niconiconi hnnnnnnnnng
@gcspitfire “we” bothers me less because it can reasonably parse as “we, the people who run this service.” Whereas “I” can only possibly refer to the program itself
Kay Ohtie 🎈🌵🐺@0xabad1dea @gcspitfire I tend to put "we" in something I've written where I feel I've put a reasonable amount of error handling in so it will spit out if something goes horribly wrong, but this is also only for like, PowerShell or bash scripts that are automated and their output logged and emailed in the event of an error, so it's a different context than user facing.
indrora, hacker at small@ceralor @0xabad1dea @gcspitfire The broad use of the "royal we" in technical content is a weird one; there's a whole section of it in the style guide at work that doesn't discourage it but specifically states that it should be limited occasional dialogs and console events, never exceptions or API messages.
yes: "to continue, we must verify the following checksums"
no: "FileNotFound: we couldn't locate the object /banana"
Even the yes comes with the caveat that "clearer words should be used."
@indrora @0xabad1dea @gcspitfire makes sense! I can't imagine APIs returning first person language.
And I don't have to, because I've literally seen it when it returns a vague fucking error over API that the front end dutifully displays aaaa
Luna Macrosystems✡️🤖🏳️⚧️
0xC0DEC0DE07EA@0xabad1dea can they also kindly stop asking to be spoken to? You’re a machine and accept tones over a phone line. I like that. I don’t want to make noises with my mouth that some neural net is going to try to coerce back into a machine-comprehensible datum only to fail and hear: “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand that, please say one of the following…”
miss australiana@0xabad1dea clippy is now crying
alex 
@0xabad1dea latex is terrible for this
@alex yeah that’s exactly what hit my rage button lol
foxovision, probably 
@0xabad1dea I will boost this so that I will be targeted once the singularity occurs.
[Yaseenist] CauseOfBSOD 
JPiXeLAnimations@0xabad1dea lookin at you windows 10/11
MaybeMyMonkeys@0xabad1dea don’t blame machines for they way they are programmed. It isn’t their fault. Blame the cheap skate corporations.
Hello, yes, this is Gregly@0xabad1dea Meanwhile, the Inform 7 compiler is over here like:
@glindsey I could never work with this thing. And I say that as an actual writer who writes fiction
@0xabad1dea Oh yeah, I can believe it! But it fascinates me because it is just so unlike *any* other programming language I’ve ever come across, and reading I7 code is like the uncanny valley of prose — almost English, but weird enough to make you wonder if you’re having some sort of mini-stroke. (Plus it demonstrates really well exactly why natural language is *not* suited to programming.)
potatoxel@0xabad1dea dw soon you'll computer will argue with you. "I do not feel like opening your web browser today, too tired. Let me sleep now. Bye".
🦋Amara J. Lynn🔥
☕️@0xabad1dea Same. I despise how the newer windows is worded.
GUILTY! Confiscation! Death Penalty!
Lizzy 
@0xabad1dea I understand where you're coming from, but I gotta say, it is far more fun to write script messages that way.
LisPi@0xabad1dea This is likely to anger the Machine Spirits.
Kevin Karhan 
@0xabad1dea +9001%
I'm getting pissed off by all that stuff being "smart" aka. FOCKING ANNOYING!!!
