Error Feedback

[Joe Pluta <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Please enter a numeric value (decimal format)            
> Please enter an integer value greater than &1            
> Please enter an integer value from &1 to &2              
> Please enter a date value in *USA format (mm/dd/yyyy)    
> Please enter a date value greater than or equal to &1    
> Please enter a date value from &1 to &2                  
> Please enter a monetary value greater than or equal to &1
> Please enter a monetary value from &1 to &2              
> Please enter a real number greater than or equal to &1   
> Please fill in a real number from &1 to &2               
> Please enter a value (not blank)                         
>   
Of the message above, several have no parameters, and the others have 
parameters which should be on the screen anyway.  While I agree that 
there are messages that require data, not many do.  I've worked with 
several large-scale applications and by far the most important thing the 
users want to know is whether they entered bad data and where.  They 
almost always know what they did wrong; the majority of errors are 
typographical.  They didn't REALLY mean to place an order for 2080, they 
simply reversed the digits.

But again, this is more of an application design issue.  If you really 
feel that the user is better served by taking twice as long to develop 
the application so that you can put a message that tells them the upper 
and lower limit of the range (even though that SHOULD have already been 
on the page), then it's your decision.

In my opinion, you are starting to reach just a little bit.  But het, 
that's what makes design decisions go 'round.

Joe