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Hubbard Asks FreeBSD Hackers To Rename EDOOFUS

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the sounds-fair-enough dept.

MobyTurbo writes "Jordan K. Hubbard, on instruction from Apple, had to inform the freebsd-hackers list that the error, pointed to by the error message number named EDOOFUS, must be changed. Several interesting suggestions have been made in the resulting thread."

12 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. A little misleading... by greck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From the article, it doesn't seem like Apple actually asked Hubbard to do anything, nor does it seem like he's saying it "must be changed"... he's just proactively trying to solve a problem before it forks into a silly headache. No need to inflate the drama of the situation any more than it's already going to be.

  2. Call for opinions by PD · · Score: 5, Funny

    Obviously the kernel developers need OUR help to sort this sorry mess out. Everyone, please make a google news account ASAP and put your two cents in. If all of us together put our minds to it, and posted our opinions on that thread, I'm sure they would appreciate our help in solving this problem quickly and efficiently. Thanks.

    --
    If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
  3. From the Thread: by big_groo · · Score: 4, Funny
    This is my favorite response:

    From: Michael Meltzer (mjm@michaelmeltzer.com) Subject: Re: A modest proposal for better errno values...

    View this article only Newsgroups: fa.freebsd.hackers Date: 2003-05-13 16:58:07 PST

    > #define EDOOFUS 88 /* Programming error */

    #define E370HSSV 88 /* Programming error */

    I think this one keeps the orinigal sprite of EDOOFUS, I will now crawl back into my cave :-)

    MJM

    PS. For the non dyslexics try reading it upsidedown.

    Priceless...

  4. EUSERERR? by hackwrench · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sure, shift the blame from the programmer (/* Programming error */) to the user(EUSERERR)

  5. Re:This seems typical by cperciva · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The assumption that anyone who makes a mistake is a 'doofus' doens't surprise me much at all.

    I think people are misunderstanding the purpose of this error. EDOOFUS doesn't mean "someone has made a stupid mistake" -- it means "*I* have made a stupid mistake". People aren't editing each others' code to add EDOOFUS; they're using it in their own code.

    Much better than simply writing /* this should never happen */ into your code.

    --
    Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
  6. Bike Shed reference by Karna · · Score: 5, Informative

    For those who are left in the dark, the bike shed reference is the following:

    16.19. Why should I care what color the bikeshed is?
    The really, really short answer is that you should not. The somewhat longer answer is that just because you are capable of building a bikeshed does not mean you should stop others from building one just because you do not like the color they plan to paint it. This is a metaphor indicating that you need not argue about every little feature just because you know enough to do so. Some people have commented that the amount of noise generated by a change is inversely proportional to the complexity of the change.

    More details at the link.

    --
    All weakness is within you, As is all courage.
  7. Re:This seems typical by ctr2sprt · · Score: 4, Informative
    I got into a fairly huge debate on some Linux newsgroups on this subject. I suppose I should provide my background: I started with Linux back in the 1.0s, then eventually converted to FreeBSD at 4.4, which is where I am now. Many of the posters had interesting stories and comments on Linux source code, and some people (like me) had a problem with the... I don't know what to call it, kind of a snobbish anti-elitism (the elitism of people who hate elitists). My first post on the subject is where you start, in case you care which one is me.

    Basically the same discussion, and basically the same problems. Neither Linux nor FreeBSD are immune to this. I'm disappointed to see EDOOFUS in FreeBSD, but unfortunately, it's an artifact of the hacker culture. For some reason, we equate expressing ourselves with acting like children, and so the attitude works its way into our code.

    Anyway, I doubt anyone will find that huge thread interesting - watching someone beat his head against a wall is probably less fun than doing it yourself - but it certainly should show that Linux has lots of those people you seem to dislike.

  8. Re:This seems typical by lpontiac · · Score: 4, Informative
    I've found FreeBSD coders to be somewhat... elitest.

    Thing is, this isn't something that a coder slings at a user, this is something that a FreeBSD coder would see as a result of their own mistake.

    I'm a coder, and when I make a stupid mistake I'll call myself all manner of things when I figure it out. Then someone in the office will ask and I'll explain what I did, and they'll follow up with a Nelson laugh.

    It's all in good fun. The only reason for removing this error (aside from, as stated in the Usenet thread, some columnist wanker getting ahold of it and blowing it out of proportion) would be to never have a "stupid error" code thrown in your face when you do something.. really stupid. I'm not quite sensitive enough to think that's necessary.

  9. Re:compromise by JDWTopGuy · · Score: 4, Funny

    EdoofusBSD is dead!

    --
    Ron Paul 2012
  10. Umm.... Slow news day? by jkh · · Score: 5, Informative

    It must be when a rather innocuous request to freebsd-hackers makes it to slashdot! Just to set the record straight, I didn't do this "at Apple's request", I did this because it seemed silly to fork a header file over the name of a single entry in it and, as I said in my message to -hackers, I just thought I'd check to see if FreeBSD was willing to change it before Apple changed it in their own sources. Anyone with time to waste can see the original message (and the thread which followed) here:
    http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd- hackers /2003-May/000791.html

    Personally, I rather liked the EDONTPANIC suggestion...

    --
    - Jordan Hubbard co-founder, the FreeBSD Project. Director, UNIX Technology. Apple Computer
  11. I was sold on EDONTPANIC... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    ...as soon as I saw this post:
    In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer
    Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, FreeBSD has already supplanted
    the great UNIX[R] as the standard repository of all knowledge
    and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains
    much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it
    scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important
    respects.

    First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the error
    EDONTPANIC inscribed in large friendly letters in its source.
  12. Re:or by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 4, Informative

    I laughed when I saw this, great reference.

    For those wondering, when the first group of PowerPC Macs came out, one of them (I think it was the 7100) was code named the Carl Sagan. Sagan protested this use of his name. Apple was pissed, it's just a code name. Someone renamed it to BHA, for Butt-Headed Astronomer.