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Can we get rid of the addon error dialogs?

Ulfson
Ulfson
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OK, so addons sometimes have problems indexing null values...
Here is my point. One, the information the dialog provides is useless to the users and often of little help to the addon programmer.
Two, the addon often works just fine except for the error dialog that is in your face.
NONE of the players I know care about the error but do care that the dialog can pop up in a boss fight and initiate a wipe.
Am I alone in thinking that these error dialogs are 99.99% useless and harmful?
Happy Trails
  • manavortex
    manavortex
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    There's an AddOn for that.
    Stop Zanil Theran's sinister plot to exterminate bank space! Give ESO+ subscribers a virtual Furniture Bag!
  • Drummerx04
    Drummerx04
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    The error dialog is anything but useless to Addon developers, and many of us will request the stack trace because 9/10 times it points us to the exact line of code that generates the error. We can then backtrace the possible sources.

    Given the inherent dynamic data typing, nil values are massively important to the consistency of the language. Generally the error pops up when a call to the game's API returns a nil value where the developer is not expecting, and it's not really practical to just check for nil before every single function call and table access. 99% of the null references will be found by the developer during rudimentary testing, but there's always that time in that specific dungeon/region/town/trial/cyrodiil/etc where the game does something we didn't expect.
    PC/NA - Nightfighters, Raid Leader and Officer
    Lilith Arujo - DC sorc tank/dps/healer - Dro-m'Athra Destroyer, Gryphon Heart, Grand Warlord
    Lilith Tortorici - DC templar trials healer

    Notable Completions:
    vAS (72k), vMoL HM (160k), vAA HM (135k), vHRC HM, vSO HM (141k), vHoF HM (168k), vCR+3(129k), vDSA 45k, vMA 591k

    Original Addons:
    Lilith's Group Manager
    Lilith's Lazy Hacks - Auto Recharge/Repair
    Bot Scanner 2000
    Lilith's Command History
    Maintained Addons:
    Kill Counter
  • Drummerx04
    Drummerx04
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    Although, it would be nice if the error window popup was simply attached to the notifications or something by default, lol
    PC/NA - Nightfighters, Raid Leader and Officer
    Lilith Arujo - DC sorc tank/dps/healer - Dro-m'Athra Destroyer, Gryphon Heart, Grand Warlord
    Lilith Tortorici - DC templar trials healer

    Notable Completions:
    vAS (72k), vMoL HM (160k), vAA HM (135k), vHRC HM, vSO HM (141k), vHoF HM (168k), vCR+3(129k), vDSA 45k, vMA 591k

    Original Addons:
    Lilith's Group Manager
    Lilith's Lazy Hacks - Auto Recharge/Repair
    Bot Scanner 2000
    Lilith's Command History
    Maintained Addons:
    Kill Counter
  • Gythral
    Gythral
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    as linked in an earlier post: No Thank You (continued) does that, along with several other things the devs wanted to annoy you with :)

    Edited by Gythral on September 15, 2018 6:39PM
    “Be as a tower, that, firmly set,
    Shakes not its top for any blast that blows!”
    Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
  • code65536
    code65536
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    Eeehhh... BugCatcher is a much better option for this than No Thank You.
    http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info1083.html

    Suppresses error messages, makes them available for review if you do want to look at them later on, and it does the job reliably with no extra frills or unexpected features. In particular, NTY suppresses a lot of other things that I do care about.
    Nightfighters ― PC/NA and PC/EU

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  • Solinur
    Solinur
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    Whenever you encounter those, please report them to the addon authors in question. It would help a lot, thx.
    @Solinur Pact EU - PC (Solinur: Templar - Magicka DD, Moves-like-Günther: Sorcerer - Stamina DD, Kinara Sol: Templar - Stamina DD, )
    Addon Author
  • Dolgubon
    Dolgubon
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    code65536 wrote: »
    Eeehhh... BugCatcher is a much better option for this than No Thank You.
    http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info1083.html

    Suppresses error messages, makes them available for review if you do want to look at them later on, and it does the job reliably with no extra frills or unexpected features. In particular, NTY suppresses a lot of other things that I do care about.

    NTY is a highly customizable add-on. If you don't like it suppressing something, then re enable it in the addon settings. Yes, it has a lot of features you might not need, but most add-ons will have some frills you don't need
    Relthion: CP810 DK Tank - vMOL HM, vHOF HM, vAS HM, vCR +2
    Malorson: CP810 Mag Sorc - vMOL HM, vHOF, vAS HM

    Addons:
    Dolgubon's Lazy Writ Crafter
    Dolgubon's Lazy Set Crafter
  • SirAndy
    SirAndy
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    Drummerx04 wrote: »
    The error dialog is anything but useless to Addon developers, and many of us will request the stack trace because 9/10 times it points us to the exact line of code that generates the error. We can then backtrace the possible sources.

    agree.gif
  • Ulfson
    Ulfson
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    Having the in-your-face error dialog is wasteful and silly.

    The error could be directed to an error log file and the dialog could be ignored completely without loosing any of the precious error information. That is where I put my error/debug data. That idea was around before I started to program computers in 1972. It seems to be forgotten now.

    Remember: Many times the error dialog appears for the "attempt to index a nil value" error and then the code works just fine and there are no further errors. Was that dialog necessary? Was that error significant? Did all the users need to see that error?

    We don't need that dialog box.
  • Draxinusom_
    Draxinusom_
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    And how many users do you estimate, would report such errors if there were no dialog? 0, zero, nada, noone or of the full population, exactly only you? I mean, from your original post I read between the line that you never report these errors.

    How exactly would that help to improve addons?
  • Solinur
    Solinur
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    And how many users do you estimate, would report such errors if there were no dialog? 0, zero, nada, noone or of the full population, exactly only you? I mean, from your original post I read between the line that you never report these errors.

    How exactly would that help to improve addons?

    Still I agree that it would be preferable to hide the error box and show it after a fight or if in a dungeon show it at the end otf it. Maybe display some symbol somwhere indicating that there are errors.

    I find the best implementation so far in No, Thank You where the error is send to the Notifications and can be opened from there whenever one wishes.
    Edited by Solinur on September 18, 2018 10:39PM
    @Solinur Pact EU - PC (Solinur: Templar - Magicka DD, Moves-like-Günther: Sorcerer - Stamina DD, Kinara Sol: Templar - Stamina DD, )
    Addon Author
  • Ulfson
    Ulfson
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    Drax, I can't speculate on who or how may users report errors. I think you are just trolling. I never reported any and I don't know anyone who has reported any errors from those dialog boxes.

    I have USED the errors to ferret out the line of offending code. But I did not need that dialog box to tell me about the error. I could have done the same with a simple chat window message.
    Happy Trails
  • Easily_Lost
    Easily_Lost
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    I use BugCatcher ( http://www.esoui.com/downloads/info1083-BugCatcher.html ) it hides the errors but holds them till you wipe them, and I report bugs or errors all the time.

    The only time I do not report them is if the author ( or no one else ) is maintaining the addon.

    One of the only ways the author knows of a problem is if users report them, because users do 'strange' things sometimes with addons.
    PC - NA - AD
    started April 2015
    PVE & Solo only

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  • danno8
    danno8
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    manavortex wrote: »
    There's an AddOn for that.

    Often though, No, Thank You is also broken and the cause of many error messages itself, lol. Like on the PTS right now.
  • Baertram
    Baertram
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    If you tend to fix the errors yourself and DO NOT report them, how could anyone else except "you" benefit from it then?
    Very sad. Just report them on www.esoui.com in the addon comments so they get patched and everyone benefits from it.

    Everything else is nonsense.
    Thank you.
    Edited by Baertram on September 30, 2018 11:51PM
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