Research Article
On Compiler Error Messages: What They Say and What They Mean
Table 1
Characteristics that error messages should have (Horning’s [
39] and proposed here).
| Our principle | Horning’s |
| Clarity and brevity | concise yet distinctive | Specificity | specific | Context-insensitivity | — | Locality | localize the problem | Positive tone | restrain and polite | Constructive guidance | suggest corrections, restrain and polite | Programmer language | user-directed, source-oriented, readable | Nonanthropomorphism | — | Consistency | — | Visual design | visible pointer, standard format | Extensible help | — | ?? | complete |
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