No, that definitely wasn't it: this is of the "numeric code plus text
string" type, although it's interesting because it has multiple-length text
strings to trade off verbosity/helpfulness.  It kind of reminds me of what
you get in ADVENT when you move to a place you have been before.  You get
only a brief description, but if you type DESCRIBE you get the full monty.
That must have saved a lot of LA34/36 paper.  :-)


On Tue, Aug 18, 2020 at 10:07 AM Derek Fawcus <
dfawcus+lists-tuhs@employees.org> wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 13, 2020 at 04:04:22PM -0400, John Cowan wrote:
> > But this reminded me: Does anyone remember a system of any sort where
> there
> > were *two* corresponding sets of alphanumeric error codes, one short and
> > meaningless like F32 and the other somewhat meaningful like POWER_LOW?  I
> > made up this example, but I have a feeling I saw or read about such
> > a system.  I can't pin it down with Dr. Google.
>
> Something early from Digital Research?
>
> Not quite what you describe, but a late DR OS had the following scheme.
>
>
> http://bitsavers.org/pdf/digitalResearch/flexos/1073-2003_FlexOS_Users_Guide_V1.3_Nov86.pdf
>
> page 4, and 128 onwards:
>
>     The help level can have a value between 1 and 4. Your computer
> manufacturer sets a default help level which you can override with DEFINE.
>
>     1 Displays the FlexOS function, the error source module, and the
> return code.
>     2 Identifies the command and type of error in one sentence.
>       An example of a level 2 error message is "COPY: Write error."
>     3 Expands on the level 2 message and includes more specific
> information.
>       An example of a level 3 message is "COPY: An error occurred writing
> report.txt on a:".
>     4 Expands on the level 3 message and often suggests a possible
> solution to the error.
>       An example of a level 4 message is "COPY: An error occurred writing
> report.txt on a: The disk a: is full. You can erase unnecessary files to
> free up space."
>
> Where for scheme 1 it gave something like:
>
>     Error Code = 80137712
>     System Source Module              = Pipe System
>     Function Returning the Error      = write_data
>     Error Argument (long in HEX)      = 123456
>     Error Argument (character string) = string
>
> With only one of the last two lines printed, depending upon the function
> in question.
>
> DF
>