Cryptic error message(s)

Cryptic error message(s)

[Alan E. Davis]

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I have stumbled over error messages in org mode a few times.  The following
message, or permutations thereof, comes up frequently, but each time I am
confused about what it means (albeit I have solved it again today):

  "The kill is not a (set of) tree(s) - please use <S-insertchar> to yank
anyway".

In each case this message was received because of a nit, in creating a
capture template.  Each time, I am consternated for a while, before I
realize this.  And each time, I am still consternated until I figure out
what the error is.

What does this mean, "use <S-insertchar> to yank anyway." ?   I haven't been
able to do anything of the kind.  I think.

What does it mean, "the kill is not a (set of) tree(s)" ?

I have sometimes noticed that the problem is a missing asterisk at the start
of a line in the template string.  Not sure, though, whether that is what is
meant.

May I humbly request that these error messages be rewritten to reflect the
nature of the error in a manner that is understandable by a user?  If I
understood them well, I would be willing to suggest other text.  On the
other hand, I must say that I don't know how all the non-ENglish speaking
programmers do it.  Amazing.


This is not the only error message I have tripped over.  Perhaps one could
develop a list of error messages, with explanations for each...  How could I
grep for error messages in the lisp source, to at least get a list of
messages?  Is this something useful to do?

Thank you very much,

Alan Davis

 "Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow
them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value."

           --- R. Buckminster Fuller

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Re: Cryptic error message(s)

[Carsten Dominik]

Hi Alan,

On Dec 16, 2010, at 3:31 PM, Alan E. Davis wrote:

> I have stumbled over error messages in org mode a few times.  The  
> following message, or permutations thereof, comes up frequently, but  
> each time I am confused about what it means (albeit I have solved it  
> again today):
>
>   "The kill is not a (set of) tree(s) - please use <S-insertchar> to  
> yank anyway".
>
> In each case this message was received because of a nit, in creating  
> a capture template.  Each time, I am consternated for a while,  
> before I realize this.  And each time, I am still consternated until  
> I figure out what the error is.

This means that your template does not look like an org-mode entry
or subtree or even a set of sibling trees, but you have specified
the capture type as `entry' instead of, for example `plain' as in
plain text.

Org capture goes to the location where the entry should be
placed, and then it uses org-paste-subtree to insert the
template at this location.  For this, your capture template
must look like a valid entry or tree.  If not you get this
error message.   Admittedly, this is not extremely useful
in this case.

>
> What does this mean, "use <S-insertchar> to yank anyway." ?   I  
> haven't been able to do anything of the kind.  I think.

S-insertkey is an unfortunate result of a key lookup for the
command yank, which is normally bound to `C-y', but in your setup
also to a key S-insertkey.

Does this help?  I have just pushed a change which should
be give a better error message in this case.  Now it should say:

"Template is not a valid Org entry or tree"

Better?

>
> What does it mean, "the kill is not a (set of) tree(s)" ?
>
> I have sometimes noticed that the problem is a missing asterisk at  
> the start of a line in the template string.  Not sure, though,  
> whether that is what is meant.

Yes. good example for an invalid entry.

HTH

- Carsten

>
> May I humbly request that these error messages be rewritten to  
> reflect the nature of the error in a manner that is understandable  
> by a user?  If I understood them well, I would be willing to suggest  
> other text.  On the other hand, I must say that I don't know how all  
> the non-ENglish speaking programmers do it.  Amazing.
>
>
> This is not the only error message I have tripped over.  Perhaps one  
> could develop a list of error messages, with explanations for  
> each...  How could I grep for error messages in the lisp source, to  
> at least get a list of messages?  Is this something useful to do?
>
> Thank you very much,
>
> Alan Davis
>
> "Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We  
> allow them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value."
>                                                                                        --- R 
> . Buckminster Fuller
>
> _______________________________________________
> Emacs-orgmode mailing list
> Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
> Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode

Re: Cryptic error message(s)

[Alan E. Davis]

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 Thank you again, Carsten.

On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 1:53 AM, Carsten Dominik
<carsten.dominik@gmail.com>wrote:

> S-insertkey is an unfortunate result of a key lookup for the
> command yank, which is normally bound to `C-y', but in your setup
> also to a key S-insertkey.
>
> This doesn't look like any set up I have specifically made.  I don't even
know what S-insertkey means.


>  Does this help?  I have just pushed a change which should
> be give a better error message in this case.  Now it should say:
>
> "Template is not a valid Org entry or tree"
>
> Better?
>

I think so.  I don't think it would be fair to expect a self-diagnostic
message here.

Thank you yet again!

Alan

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