On: Should error messages apologize? (2013)

[sigwinch28]

I try to do this when writing error messages I expect to be seen by other engineers. I also try to state why this is an error condition.

“ERROR: Database query returned 0 rows”

versus

“ERROR: Database query returned 0 rows but need 2 or more rows for this operation. Ensure $other_etl has successfully ingested the data.”