rcd@opus.UUCP (Dick Dunn) (01/28/86)
> > Translating error messages: Ok. What about a french version of the infamous > > "bad magic number". > I'd say one should take advantage of the opportunity and do a French version > of what the error message should have been all along, i.e. something like > "not a .o file for this processor."... So you've never worked on a system where they're called .b files instead of .o files? And is it really more helpful? What's a .o file--we who speak English know that it's an abbreviation for "object", but does that really translate into French, or German, or...? > ...If one of the results of international- > ization is the elimination of cretinous messages like "bad magic number," > it deserves support from even the most isolationist of users. My point in the preceding comments is to point out that the suggested revision may be not a lot better than the original. I'll grant that "bad magic number" is a curious message--and probably has some thoroughly amusing translations--but it's easier to criticize and much harder to do it right. (Imagine the plight of a novice who tries to execute some piece of data and gets the "cannot execute" message--so he does a "chmod a+x" on the file and tries again. His file doesn't have a ".o" anywhere; he doesn't know what "this processor" has to do with it; etc., etc.) -- Dick Dunn {hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd (303)444-5710 x3086 ...Worst-case analysis must never begin with "No one will ever want..."