I got this one yesterday, and immediately decided to use a different library:
TypeError: publish_programmatically() takes exactly 17 arguments (1 given)
(I won't name and shame the library but you Python programmers may recognise it)
So, what is your most daunting/uninformative error message?
Edit: And before the duplicate people go crazy, I am not looking for "funny" or "weird" error messages.
You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 1
Also, this Adobe Flash or Flex error message:
TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.
Error Error:Success
and that was an IDE error message from VS. I was like.. whut?
The Glockenspiel C++ compiler, a commercial product of the late 80s, used to core-dump if you gave it certain incorrect C++ syntax as input. I always thought that "syntax error at line xxx" might have been a better approach...
ASP Classic
Server: "Error 500", something is wrong, have a nice day
Me: Can I get the slightest clue?
Server: No.
I can't remember it and I don't think I can reproduce it. It was about the buggy libc on the system I happened to work and produced a full stacktrace right from the system calls.
java.awt.HeadlessException at
java.awt.GraphicsEnvironment.checkHeadless(GraphicsEnvironment.java:159)
Huh? Guess I'll have to make do with the rest of the body.
The old BBC Micro when faced with something it didn't understand would often come up with:
Bad program error
Segmentation fault
when you're working in a higher-level/scripting language that's supposed to be crash-proof. Because debugging your basic toolset is so what you wanted to be doing today, right?
Crystal Reports
Load Report Failed
The problem could be the file path, crystal version, the report itself, etc..
Daunting? How about 25 years ago, using the Aztec C compiler on multi-user CPM machines, a seg fault promoted you to user level 0 status?
When writing Prolog: No can mean anything from "no, that clause doesn't hold" to "no, I don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about".
ORA-12154: TNS: could not resolve service name
What they should have said is:
ORA-12154: Could not connect to the Oracle database. Depending on your specific environment, any one of 14,325 possible things could be wrong. Try Google for a confusing morass of disinformation
In Microsoft RPC: "The remote procedure call failed".
Completely useless – other MS RPC error texts at least offer some explanation, this one offers nothing.
Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
Now, years later, I know that this means exactly what it says, but it caused me nothing but grief for the first few years of .NET development.
I was once working on an archaic FORTRAN (IV) program which at one point produced an error message in Portuguese. After spending a day tracking down what it translated to, I found it meant "It is better to be a live donkey than a dead doctor."
The most cryptic I had were TRS-80 Level 1 BASIC: WHAT? (syntax error), HOW? (runtime error), or SORRY (out of memory, meaning that you used too high a subscript on the array (yes, the array, there was only one, and it was called A (is my fondness for Lisp showing up here?))). Since it was a fully interpreted language, syntax errors would only be detected when executing that line of code.
Of late, it's been the error message about incorrect configuration, maybe re-installing will work. It may be fine for an end user dealing with a shrinkwrap application, but as a developer for in-house software it was no help at all.
This isn't really a coding-related error, but I don't think you can get more daunting than "Keyboard error: press F1 to continue".
When ruby says:
testprog.rb:517: syntax error, unexpected $end, expecting kEND
because it tells me that somewhere in the previous 500 lines I'm missing an end.
It really can't narrow it down better than that?
"Catastrophic failure" in SQL Server. The very definition of daunting.
One of my favs:
ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error
So is my issue the numbers? Or the characters? Talk about helpful...
In my case it should usually read:
ORA-06502: PL/SQL: you forgot a semi-colon at line XXXX
Not worthy of an upvote, but I HATE INFORMIX!
It only ever says "Syntax error" or something equally useless. It's like it's laughting at me. Obviously I know what it means, but it's so un-helpful.
I wrote a stored procedure today and spent half an hour with "Syntax Error" until I noticed I missed a ; from a statement.
Like I said. Im not looking for an upvote. I just HATE INFORMIX and wanted to vent that before going to bed. Ahh... I feel better now.
Programming with Java RMI and starting up the registry to get an NotBoundException because some other process has already nabbed port 1099.
Kill firefox? No good - port still bound.
Kill MSN? No good.
Kill Outlook? No good.
Kill anything and everything else that's running? No good.
Netstat -b? No useful info.
Restart my PC and start again then. Where's my coffee..?
Grrr.
How about the old Access error message when a repair/compact operation failed:
"Operation failed, Some data may be lost."
The horribleness of this message is that it says that something really scary MIGHT have happened to some of your data, but doesn't give you any way to figure out whether it happened or what specific data has gone missing. The only purpose it serves is to invoke doubt and fear.
And the most famous of all:
"Keyboard not found, press F1 to continue."
Error: General Error
or
Error: Unknown Error
or
Error: An Error Has Occurred
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM in Command line code on line 1
"Error rolling back transaction."
Sure enough, half of the transaction was committed.
From Tortoise SVN: "Reached unreachable code." Ah, to dream the impossible dream....
When there's an error in the structure of your modification of the DOM in Internet Explorer using JavaScript:
Undefined Runtime Error
In Visual C++ 6.0 when you assign a const iterator to a non-const iterator, and get something like this:
C:\batch\apps\test\test.cpp(15) : error C2440: 'initializing' : cannot convert from 'class std::_Tree<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> >,struct std::pair<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::c
har_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> > const ,class std::vector<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> >,class std::allocator<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std:
:allocator<char> > > > >,struct std::map<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> >,class std::vector<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> >,class std::all
ocator<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> > > >,struct std::less<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> > >,class std::allocator<class std::vector<clas
s std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> >,class std::allocator<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> > > > > >::_Kfn,struct std::less<class std::basic_string<c
har,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> > >,class std::allocator<class std::vector<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> >,class std::allocator<class std::basic_string<char,struct
std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> > > > > >::const_iterator' to 'class std::_Tree<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> >,struct std::pair<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_
traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> > const ,class std::vector<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> >,class std::allocator<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::all
ocator<char> > > > >,struct std::map<class std::basic_st
ring<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> >,class std::vector<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> >,class std::allocator<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<
char>,class std::allocator<char> > > >,struct std::less<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> > >,class std::allocator<class std::vector<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class
std::allocator<char> >,class std::allocator<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> > > > > >::_Kfn,struct std::less<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char>
> >,class std::allocator<class std::vector<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> >,class std::allocator<class std::basic_string<char,struct std::char_traits<char>,class std::allocator<char> > > > > >:
:iterator'
No constructor could take the source type, or constructor overload resolution was ambiguous
Strictly speaking, this is neither an error, nor "daunting", but I've wanted to share it for a while.
When your laptop battery hits a certain point, Windows XP will give a message box saying something like "Your battery is low. Please shut down or switch to outlet power to avoid losing any unsaved data."
The crazy thing about this message is that it interrupts the shutdown process, even if the lid is closed. Many times, I've opened my laptop to find this message smugly floating over the blue "Windows is shutting down..." screen. (Not an easy screenshot to take, alas.)
Having said that... I'd take that bug over Vista any day!
JavaScript error in Internet Explorer < 8:
Error: Object expected
I do (not) like WCF client error NotFound when anything goes wrong on the server.
PHP knows how to communicate errors effectively:
Unknown: failed to open stream: Permission denied in Unknown on line 0
Great!
In our own application, when you typed a wrong login name or password, you got something like this:
"Login failed or database not connected. Check your user name and password or reinstall the server"
They fixed it later. Now it is:
"The password is wrong or was not typed correctly."
Still funny, but quite better, isn't it?
Maybe there is no hope for me but I still think this is funny...
Quoted from the classic Ed, man! !man ed :
("Ed is the standard text editor.")
Let's look at a typical novice's session with the mighty ed: golem$ ed ? help ? ? ? quit ? exit ? bye ? hello? ? eat flaming death ? ^C ? ^C ? ^D ? Note the consistent user interface and error reportage. Ed is generous enough to flag errors, yet prudent enough not to overwhelm the novice with verbosity.
I included this one on a program of mine during college:
"ERROR: Something bad happened, but I won´t tell you what."
When you mixed VB6 and COM+, sometimes you got:
Method '~' of object '~' failed.
Always fun.
Mens. 8152, Nivel 16, Estado 9, Línea 1
String or binary data would be truncated.
The statement has been terminated.
I hate this as it doesn't state what table.column is failing
Along with all the funny stuff, heres some good reading over at Coding Horror. Check that article out, as it fits this question perfectly.
MY favorite one is still: While programming some GUI in Java, after a half-screen stacktrace:
Code too complicated.
Or something to the effect...
Not exactly an error message, but my personal favorite so far is a confirmation dialog with "Yes" and "No" buttons and text:
Please select 'No'.
If you pressed yes, you got a NullPointerException.
Daunting SML compiler error: Expected signature Int * Int->Int but got Int * Int->Int.
FogBugz gives the following error when something goes wrong that is unhandled. I ran into it a bunch of times due to us having a very odd web environment that we were attempting to install into.
An internal error occurred in FogBugz. If you are unsure of how to fix this error, and you have made no changes to the source code of FogBugz, please report this error to Fog Creek Software by clicking "Submit."
The problem with the message is the part that says,
If you are unsure of how to fix this error...
It gives no information of what the error is so how could I ever be sure how to fix the error :) It really should give some indication of what is going on or not even bother with that line in the error message.
Message from Hibernate when there is a query error usually ends with
Call getNextException to see the cause
Of course, by the time you see that in the log, the exception is long gone. It usually means there's a long debugging session ahead.
At the last place I worked I discovered this bit of modal awesomeness in the embedded software for a touchscreen device that relatively unsophisticated users were expected to use:
Invalid BRS
OK to continue
with a single "OK" button underneath. The total lack of punctuation was what made it so great -- it wasn't clear whether this was a question, or simply a statement of fact. Even better is the fact that the only available user action (i.e. pressing the "OK" button) was exactly the wrong thing to do since it would irretrievably delete all the apparently offending application data and restart from scratch (in an application where losing any data constituted "the worst case scenario"). The correct action to take was actually the less-intuitive "turn off the device and/or back away from it slowly." I fixed this message (and lots of similar ones) in a later release but there are still people running the older software today.