8/3/2004 - Errors

I get some of the most spectacular errors in my code. I actually had one a few months ago, which merely said "Catastrophic Error". Personally, I think that the runtime is overreacting.

However, today I got one that just makes me giddy with the implications. I was able to create an error that reads "Index 8765 is not non-negative and below total rows count". It's basically an index out of range exception, but the wording is like a zen koan. It cannot be understood by applying logic.

Think about that. Let's break it down into manageable chunks. First, we have to assume that there are implied parentheses around everything after the "is not", hence the statement "Index 8765 is not (non-negative and below total rows count), which can be expanded to say "Index 8765 is not non-negative, and Index 8765 is not below total rows count".

Index 8765 is not non-negative. Well, I know that Index 8765 is positive. So positive is not non-negative. Pull two out of the triple negative, and you have a single negative. Hence, positive is negative. We know that is false, so we've evaluated the first part of the expression.

Second part of the expression... "Index 8765 is not below total rows count". I'll have to assume that this is true, since I don't know the total rows count.

So the first part of the expression is false, the second part is true. Now, to the conclusion... false and true equals what, kids? FALSE! That statement is inherently FALSE! My index cannot be both not non-negative AND not below total rows count. That's patently absurd!

Anyway, my logic is plainly flawed, but it was a lot of fun to say.