
concise. They should also explain exactly what steps the user
should take. If they are going to lose information, let them
know in the error message (this will save you from being the
one to tell them).
Sometimes errors are referred to as bugs. Bugs can be
anything from a mistake in the functionality provided (undoc-
umented features) to a coding error that breaks execution of
the program from which you cannot recover. Hopefully, you
will be conscious of the possibility of bugs and code appropri-
ately. This means that you will try to avoid losing a user’s
data should the program crash. There will always be instances
where data cannot be recovered, but ...