Incomprehensible error message of the day

by Matthew Stibbe on August 17, 2006

“Can’t make a visible window modal.” What?

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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

John McGarvey August 17, 2006 at 4:26 pm: When I worked for a well-known software company, there was a period when we used a piece of software that originated in Spain. It had been translated into English. Badly. Errors like: “Access denied. Unauthorised” followed by a “yes” button weren’t uncommon, but every now and then you’d get a bit of text that they hadn’t even bothered trying to translate. Really helpful when you’re trying to figure out what’s just gone wrong.

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scott August 17, 2006 at 4:29 pm: I’ve been trying to make a visible window modal forever, it seems. Should you ever master it, please let me know your secret.s

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Robert Hruzek August 17, 2006 at 9:28 pm: That’s not a glitch, that’s a feature!

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Tom August 18, 2006 at 10:02 am: I’ve been a developer too long – I actually know what that means.

Now I must go and shower – Unclean! Unclean!

(If anyone is curious, then a window being modal means it demands your attention and you can’t get away from it – like error messages – you have to deal with it before you can get back to work. So the error message means it’s trying to make one of the windows currently being displayed modal, but it can’t. But you either knew that, or didn’t want to know I bet.)

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Vardaman May 9, 2007 at 6:20 pm: Tom,

So, what does it mean if one isn’t curious?

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