Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!news.albasani.net!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Lew Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: SimpleFormatter Question Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2012 10:27:34 -0800 Organization: albasani.net Lines: 41 Message-ID: References: <4f5ab90d$0$289$14726298@news.sunsite.dk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: news.albasani.net SG7zT+nHulyGKntbEpjLoRXeO43W4TwmrOiVzmt4acJbFv0zt/WSP6Tam/qbaIe7lD7B4LK03csfL1VDUP8R1rRmcsHNG2hfe7kwi5d1EIjv2FSqumYkYOqlKSerUdmS NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:27:31 +0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: news.albasani.net; logging-data="MNIHY+3epkOY9uZjb+Wyz+UsD8qLvxAJ7a4Vw5K7wm+LDv1q/h5PwhLO4NgLRgnAYQLYX1m/vjOT0rUuZjoMQL5UJ+3UUtzsFKBPEV3X1te5KnxIzs6EtbQgpv3M8Ku3"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@albasani.net" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:10.0.2) Gecko/20120216 Thunderbird/10.0.2 In-Reply-To: Cancel-Lock: sha1:W002O0zwLgQT4JVh7tFzy9u5jeE= Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:12850 Novice wrote: > I'm sure this error is small potatoes compared to some that have occurred > over the years ;-) > > I just wanted to get a sense of whether this was too trivial to even > bother reporting. I'm getting the impression that my basic philosophy > should be that no error is too trivial to report..... The only error that's "too trivial" to report is one that is correct behavior of the program, i.e., not an error at all. Allowing the question at all whether errors have a threshold of importance even to bother reporting is a "camel's nose under the tent" strategy. What's not reported cannot garner action. Where's the advantage? And what constitutes "trivial" vs. "important"? The very definitions of those terms applied to bugs are suspect at best, controversial for certain. A heart attack might seem more important than a broken leg, unless you're the person with the broken leg, or the heart attack is the criminal's and the broken leg the victim's affliction. Whether something is a bug is objective and inarguable. Either the behavior is as intended or not. How you should respond to a bug is a matter of triage. Regardless of whether the heart attack is somehow more or less "important" than the broken leg, you still have to choose one to handle first. The rules to do so can be pretty clear without messy philosophical or political debate. The most important management rule in triage scenarios, or any battle situation, is support the operator on the ground. It's good leadership to reward a proper action even if it fails. (We assume no actual dereliction here.) Of course, the best reward is to give that person the job to write the report on what happened, what failed, and how maybe to do better in future. Just make sure you smile at them and thank them for their true commitment as you give them the assignment. -- Lew Honi soit qui mal y pense. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Friz.jpg