From: sip1@ellis.uchicago.edu (Timothy F. Sipples)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Re: OS/2 Error Code List
Date: 3 Jan 93 23:13:27 GMT
Reply-To: sip1@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: Dept. of Econ., Univ. of Chicago

In article <105945@bu.edu> heiser@acs.bu.edu (William Heiser) writes:
>Is there available a list of the error codes for OS/2?
>One of the things I've always hated about IBM is the way they 
>report things like "sys01475" with absolutely no clue what that
>really means.  Even a short string like "invalid boot block" or
>something would be useful.
>For example, this morning my machine wouldn't boot - at the point where
>the boot manager usually takes over, the machine simply said:
>OS/2 !! Sys01475
>OS/2 !! Sys02027
>How useful!  (NOT!)

Agreed.  This is one of the few areas where there should be a plain
text message.  The trouble is that not everyone speaks English, hence
if someone from Japan handed you a diskette it would say:

OS/2 !! Sys01475: $#)adskjpt$%0 ASDljf% Adflj#550823

or some such unintelligible string.  So they stick with the numbers,
since none of the national language support is active in such a
situation.  (Ever try and fit that sort of thing in a boot sector on a
floppy?  :-))

Normally, when OS/2 proper is running, you'll get a nice, friendly
message, such as:

SYS0033: The process cannot access the file because
another process has locked a portion of the file.

Or, if you're in Japan, you'll get the appropriate translation.  If
you type:

HELP SYS0033

you'll get a more detailed explanation.

Why the error numbers?  Well, if you ever do any programming or error
logging, and you want to interpret the results, these numbers can be
enormously useful.  SYS0033 indicates not only the error number, but
where it came from (base operating system, in this case).  There are
REX error numbers (for REXX errors), for example.

I could say something gratuitous about how Americans don't realize
there's a world beyond their borders, and how I'm often guilty of it
as much as anyone else, but notice I didn't do that.  Sort of.  :-)

>I was about to start a re-install, and in the process discovered that
>a non-bootable floppy was in drive A:.  Why didn't OS/2 boot manager
>just SAY that???

Boot Manager wasn't in charge at that point -- your machine (and the
floppy) was.  It hadn't reached the hard disk yet.

DOS uses a message which says something like:

Non system disk - Insert another

But, again, if you're in Japan you'd scratch your head.  (That seems
to be a genuine problem, actually.  People exchanging diskettes run
into a bit of confusion once in a while.)

>In any case, a list of errors and at least a terse explanation of their
>meaning would be very useful.

Right.  What they should at least have done is put a nice, big insert
in the OS/2 package with an indication of what those error numbers
are.

And here's another possibility: they've got just enough room for a
couple short strings.  Why not pick the five top world languages, say,
and use those?  Perhaps we'll insult the Croatians and the Lithuanians
in the process, but it might be an improvement.

-- 
Timothy F. Sipples      | Read the OS/2 FAQ List 2.0h, available from
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of Chicago, 60637       | [Read the List, THEN post to ONE OS/2 newsgroup.]
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