From kde-i18n-doc  Wed Nov 27 16:03:36 2013
From: Christian Mollekopf <chrigi_1 () fastmail ! fm>
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 16:03:36 +0000
To: kde-i18n-doc
Subject: Re: Error messages in kimap
Message-Id: <2342557.aCylvRKWXu () t420s ! chrigi>
X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-i18n-doc&m=138556823618750

On Wednesday 27 November 2013 17.22:35 Yuri Chornoivan wrote:
> =D0=BD=D0=B0=D0=BF=D0=B8=D1=81=D0=B0=D0=BD=D0=B5 Wed, 27 Nov 2013 16:=
16:59 +0200, Lasse Liehu
>=20
> <lasse.liehu@gmail.com>:
> > Hi,
> >=20
> > kimap, a library in kdepimlibs, has had poor, technical and
> > translatable error messages for some time. A while ago I tried to
> > improve the situation a bit by changing straight IMAP command names=

> > into more descriptive names. See
> > https://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/113907/
> >=20
> > It was then pointed out that that was merely a workaround and error=
s
> > shouldn=E2=80=99t be handled on IMAP command level. The error messa=
ges were
> > also still too technical.
> >=20
> > Currently almost all error messages are either of the form =E2=80=9C=
%1 failed,
> > server replied: %2=E2=80=9D or =E2=80=9C%1 failed, malformed reply =
from the server.=E2=80=9D
> > where %1 is the job name. Only a few jobs (operations) have customi=
zed
> > error handling and thus better error messages.
> >=20
> > On IRC Christian Mollekopf suggested to show a non-technical error
> > message to the user and leave the current technical ones untranslat=
ed
> > in logs like .xsession-errors.
> >=20
> > So, what do you think?
>=20
> Hi,
>=20
> I would rather see what went wrong or not see any error message at al=
l
> (the latter case is better ;) ).
>=20
> Non-technical error messages are useless, they just provoke the
> meaningless bug reports.
>=20

While I sympathize, this can also get us close to displaying error code=
s to=20
the user ;-) Seriously though, if something went wrong we need to notif=
y the=20
user. There is nothing more annoying than a system that looks like ever=
ything=20
is ok, but just doesn't do what it's supposed to do. So something along=
 the=20
lines of "Communication to server failed." is in order I think.
I know that is completely useless for debugging anything, but at least =
the=20
user knows that something went wrong and the sysadmin should be contact=
ed.

The more tech savvy user will then look into .xsession-errors, where yo=
u get a=20
very technical, untranslated message what went wrong exactly.

What's important to me is (as a developer):
* No translated error messages (that at best obfuscates what's wrong)
* Error messages should go to a logfile and not a dialog (so I can get =
them the=20
day after)
* As few translations as possible, as many as necessary (no unnecessary=
=20
overhead).

That's why I voted against the improved translations of IMAP command=20=

descriptions.

Cheers,
Christian

> Just my 2 cents.
>=20
> Best regards,
> Yuri