Dreadful error messages



An error message from Windows Vista:

"You do not have permission to view the current permission settings for Properties, but you can make permission changes."

David Terry, a Programmer/analyst, offers the following explanation on the TechRepublic website:

"You get it in Vista when you are drilling into the permissions of a file folder when you are logged in with Administrator level permissions, but that particular account has not been explicitly given rights, either directly, or through inheritance, to that folder. So….the logic goes, you cannot view the folder permissions (because you don’t currently have permission), BUT since you are an Administrator, you can, of course, grant those permissions to yourself. The reason it doesn’t do this automatically is because 1) the act could break something else, and 2) a long time ago everyone complained to Microsoft about them 'automatically' deciding what is best for someone’s IT environment…so they stopped it and said 'Now if you want it to happen, you have to do it yourself.'

Just thought I would share that with the community."

The objection most users have about error messages is they seldom, if ever, provide any message. Their wording is gibberish. Since a command of the English language, or common logic, is not the forte of developers, the rest of us are stuck with trying to decipher what they really meant to say.

It's sort of trying to talk with your lawyer, or something that just stepped off a flying saucer.