[Python-Dev] POSIX [Fuzziness in io module specs] (original) (raw)

Nick Coghlan ncoghlan at gmail.com
Sat Sep 19 15:01:23 CEST 2009

Pascal Chambon wrote:

(imo, most people just want to know if the operation was successful, I don't know if many developers scan error codes to act accordingly).

And as a user of applications written by those developers, it is a practice I detest with a passion. Debugging environmental problems is painful enough without further encouraging applications that lie to their users as to what has actually gone wrong.

For example, a file not existing, a file being locked by another process, and the user not having write permissions to the file are problems that demand very different responses from the user. Applications that give the same error message for all three problems are far too common.

Cheers, Nick.

-- Nick Coghlan | ncoghlan at gmail.com | Brisbane, Australia

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