Re:If you're just going to sit there doing nothing, at least...
by rerdavies on Saturday February 17, 2024 @05:25AM
(#39408174)
HRESULTs are well intentioned. They originated in OS/2; but Microsoft always seemed to use them half-heartedly.
Users should not be seeing "08CAE5D012" error messages. They should be seeing "Connection refused. (08CAE5D012)" messages, or "No connection. (83255321)" messages instead.
There's is a non-trivial protocol for translating HRESULTs into error text; but it is often not supported properly by Windows applications, or Windows OS components.
e.g. DirectX which returns generic 0x8004005 E_FAIL errors. Or the WinSock APIs, which return HRESULTs, but don't provide text message translations; or Microsoft Installers that report raw HRESULTs with no attempt to capture the associated error text.
With discipline, the entire system could have worked. But there wasn't, and it didn't.
Users should not be seeing "08CAE5D012" error messages. They should be seeing "Connection refused. (08CAE5D012)" messages, or "No connection. (83255321)" messages instead.
There's is a non-trivial protocol for translating HRESULTs into error text; but it is often not supported properly by Windows applications, or Windows OS components.
e.g. DirectX which returns generic 0x8004005 E_FAIL errors. Or the WinSock APIs, which return HRESULTs, but don't provide text message translations; or Microsoft Installers that report raw HRESULTs with no attempt to capture the associated error text.
With discipline, the entire system could have worked. But there wasn't, and it didn't.