Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System

Michael Davidsaver via Core-talk <core-talk at aps.anl.gov> · Thu, 4 Feb 2021 08:29:06 -0800

On 2/4/21 8:18 AM, Simon Rose wrote:
> 
> 
> On 2021-02-04, 16:43, "Core-talk on behalf of Michael Davidsaver via Core-talk" <core-talk-bounces at aps.anl.gov on behalf of core-talk at aps.anl.gov> wrote:
> 
>     > In such a tool, I would support and encourage all kinds of intelligent hints for improving databases, showing similar options for typos being the simplest example.
>     > (What about "Engineers that used the calcout record also often use the seq and compress records.")
>     > 
>     > "Fixing" bugs on the fly? Rather not. Large blocks of explanations and suggestions on the IOC console? Rather not.
>     
>     Fair enough.  The are certainly diminishing returns for longer error messages.
>     
> There are diminishing returns for longer error messages, but it's still probably good to have more descriptive ones:
> 
>   Can't set "foo.SCAN" to "10 seconds" Extraneous characters
>   Error at or before ")" in path "."  file "badchoice.db" line 2
>   dbLoadRecords: failed to load 'badchoice.db'
>   Error: Failed to load: badchoice.db
> 
> Doesn't tell you what the problem is or how to fix it, but
> 
>   Can't set "foo.SCAN" to "10 seconds" Extraneous characters
>   Menu Choices:
>      "Passive"
>      "Event"
>      "I/O Intr"
>      "10 second"
>      "5 second"
>      "2 second"
>      "1 second"
>      ".5 second"
>      ".2 second"
>      ".1 second"
>   Error at or before ")" in path "."  file "badchoice.db" line 2
>   dbLoadRecords: failed to load 'badchoice.db'
>   Error: Failed to load: badchoice.db 
> 
> Or some variant does. But maybe a message such as 'Can't set "foo.SCAN" to "10 seconds" - invalid menu choice' could satisfy both criteria?

As background.  This specific error comes from trying to parse "10 seconds" as an integer
after failing to match any of the menu strings.  eg. "0" is the same as "Passive",
and "3" is "10 second".  Another possible error message is:

> Can't set "foo.SCAN" to "Pensive" No digits to convert

fyi. this is another actual typo for me.  The wonders of autocomplete...
Though I think pensive scans would be a good feature.

Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System

Experimental Physics and
Industrial Control System