__/ [ The Ghost In The Machine ] on Tuesday 21 February 2006 19:00 \__
> In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Roy Schestowitz
> <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote
> on Tue, 21 Feb 2006 17:51:04 +0000
> <dtfk0t$1q6u$3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>> http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/4630
>>
>> Behold the shame.
>
> Remember when "bad press was better than no press at all"? :-)
>
> I'm not so sure of that anymore...
>
> I like the phrasing:
>
> "Video and text output has encountered a problem and needs to close.
> We are sorry for the inconvenience."
>
> Since when is 'video and text output' a program name such as Explorer?
> Bizarre linguistics; they could have at least put it in quotes or
> something, or called it a service:
>
> "The video and text output service has encountered ..."
>
> But never mind that; this is from the OS that gives wonderful
> diagnostics messages such as:
>
> C:\> cd c:\blahblah\duh
> The system cannot find the path specified.
> (this is OK but makes the system look a tad incompetent)
>
> C:\> cd c:\blahblah\feh
> The directory name is invalid.
> (this is because '\blahblah\feh' is actually a file! Maybe
> if the filename had an actual *space* in it, it might be invalid,
> but 'feh' is a perfectly valid name...were it not used for
> something else.)
>
> C:\> rmdir c:\blahblah\feh
> The directory name is invalid.
> (well at least it's consistent)
>
> C:\> mkdir c:\blahblah\feh
> A subdirectory or file feh already exists.
> (What, you can't tell the diff?)
>
> C:\> type nul > c:\blahblah
> Access is denied.
> (Nice self-protection but a little ambiguous.)
>
> C:\> cd nul
> The parameter is incorrect.
> (Oh, this one's a mysterious one! See also PRN, AUX, and a
> few other "magic file names".)
>
> C:\> cd nul.txt
> The parameter is incorrect.
> (Just as mysterious.)
>
> C:\> del c:\blahblah
> c:\blahblah\*, Are you sure (Y,N)?
> (I'm never sure about this sort of thing. Will it erase
> files such as erm.txt, which usually requires a *.* wildcard,
> at least on older DOS/Windows versions?)
>
> C:\> rename c:\blahblah c:\douy
> The syntax of the command is incorrect.
> (Syntax error? *WHAT* syntax error?!?)
>
> C:\> move c:\blahblah c:\feh
> 1 file(s) moved.
> (But it was a directory....!?)
>
> C:\> feh
> 'feh' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
> operable program or batch file.
> (What's an 'operable program'?)
>
> C:\> c:\blahblah
> 'c:\blahblah' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
> operable program or batch file.
> (It's a directory, so fair enough here.)
>
> C:\> c:\blahblah\feh
> 'c:\blahblah\feh' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
> operable program or batch file.
> (It's an empty file. Score another for Windows consistency. Maybe.)
>
> To be fair:
>
> $ cd ~/blahblah/duh
> bash: cd: ~/blahblah/duh: No such file or directory
> (Hmm...I was looking for a directory so why 'file'? But the
> error code ENOENT is used in both cases; getting rid of this
> one will take some doing.)
>
> $ cd ~/blahblah/feh
> bash: cd: ~/blahblah/feh: Not a directory
> (Fair enough.)
>
> $ rmdir ~/blahblah/feh
> rmdir: ~/blahblah/feh: Not a directory
> (Fair enough.)
>
> $ mkdir ~/blahblah/feh
> mkdir: `blahblah/feh' exists but is not a directory
> (Interesting that this one's different; apparently it's a special
> check.)
>
> $ cat /dev/null > ~/blahblah
> bash: /home/user/blahblah: Is a directory
> (Thank you! And here I thought it was because access is denied...)
>
> $ cd /dev/null
> bash: cd: /dev/null: Not a directory
> (Of course.)
>
> $ cd /dev/null.txt
> bash: cd: /dev/null.txt: No such file or directory
> (Natch.)
>
> $ rm ~/blahblah
> rm: cannot remove `~/blahblah': Is a directory
> (This one's rooted in history, and is probably not something easily
> removed from the Unix/Linux lexicon. It's also slightly protective;
> a mixed blessing.)
>
> $ mv ~/blahblah ~/feh
> (No diagnostic; everything moved correctly.)
>
> $ mv -v ~/blahblah ~/feh
> `/home/user/blahblah' -> `/home/user/feh'
> (I asked for verbose and got it.)
>
> $ feh
> bash: feh: command not found
> (A bit terse.)
>
> $ ~/blahblah
> bash: /home/user/blahblah: is a directory
> (Yep. Note the 'is'; it's lower case. Apparently another special.)
>
> $ ~/blahblah/feh
> bash: /home/user/blahblah/feh: Permission denied
> (No -x bit. Another historical artifact.)
>
> Now, granted, Linux isn't perfect ("no such file *or* directory"?), but
> it seems to be a little clearer in the error messages category than
> a certain other offering. I've also not included symbolic links
> (mostly because NT/2k doesn't have such; they're '.LNK' files and
> processed by Explorer, not the file system).
>
> And of course having a crash message splayed all over an electronic
> billboard is going to be grist for the humor mill. But I have seen
> an Amiga GURU and at one point an Amiga CLI on a cable channel;
> these things do happen.
Nice test run. It was nice to get a reminder of how MS-DOS responds to
errorenous commands. Here is one from the GUI front:
http://chris.pirillo.com/blog/_archives/2006/2/8/1751817.html
A rant that come from a Micro$hafter, by the way.
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