{"action":"created","issue":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/dealii/dealii/issues/610","labels_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/dealii/dealii/issues/610/labels{/name}","comments_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/dealii/dealii/issues/610/comments","events_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/dealii/dealii/issues/610/events","html_url":"https://github.com/dealii/dealii/issues/610","id":59180419,"number":610,"title":"Eradicate exceptions without argument","user":{"login":"bangerth","id":7504421,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/7504421?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/bangerth","html_url":"https://github.com/bangerth","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/bangerth/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/bangerth/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/bangerth/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/bangerth/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/bangerth/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/bangerth/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/bangerth/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/bangerth/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/bangerth/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"labels":[],"state":"open","locked":false,"assignee":null,"milestone":null,"comments":8,"created_at":"2015-02-27T02:31:15Z","updated_at":"2015-04-02T13:43:25Z","closed_at":null,"body":"One of the first lessons I teach my students is to read the error messages. Once they get used to it, it actually works reasonably well. But only for those errors that do actually print anything useful. Many of our messages do that, but we have ~250 exceptions declared with `DeclException0` that, in essence, only print the name of the exception but nothing else. I think the original idea was that the name of the exception is a giveaway, but I find now that that was a failed hope.\r\n\r\nIn other words, we need to get rid of this!"},"comment":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/dealii/dealii/issues/comments/88906100","html_url":"https://github.com/dealii/dealii/issues/610#issuecomment-88906100","issue_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/dealii/dealii/issues/610","id":88906100,"user":{"login":"tamiko","id":3432917,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/3432917?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/tamiko","html_url":"https://github.com/tamiko","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/tamiko/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/tamiko/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/tamiko/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/tamiko/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/tamiko/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/tamiko/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/tamiko/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/tamiko/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/tamiko/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"created_at":"2015-04-02T13:43:25Z","updated_at":"2015-04-02T13:43:25Z","body":"There is a difference between verbose information about an exception and a verbose explanation about the cause and reasons for an exception. Personally, I do not think that it helps very much to print several paragraphs of documentation in \"Additional Information\".\r\n\r\nThis is first of all a clear distraction for advanced users. Further, I doubt that it fulfills its primary purpose. From a psychological point of view, verbose error message do not get read - or not read thoroughfully - because they are by its very nature a surprising and demanding event connected with stress for inexperienced users.\r\n\r\nKeeping in mind that this is my personal opinion on this matter, I suggest as a compromise to\r\n  - Use an <code>#ifdef doxygen</code> guard to get doxygen coverage of the exception classes\r\n  - Provide the full explanation in the doxygen documentation of the respective class.\r\n  - Reduce the information in \"Additional Information\" to one/two descriptive sentences\r\n  - Add a link to the full documentation in the \"Additional Information\" section that points to the full documentation. \"More information can be found at: ...\"\r\n\r\nI think this is a reasonable compromise that\r\n  - provides enough information to understand the error\r\n  - still preserves the full documentation if needed\r\n  - Does not distract the output of the abort message too much."}}