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Dear RIM,
I was flipping through my friend's Java textbook yesterday, and I turned to a page about how to handle an "exception" when writing a program.
I don't know anything about coding software, but the first thing that came to mind was that most times when I restart my phone a little black screen pops up that reads: "Uncaught exception...".
When I told my friends this they laughed at such an un-elegant communication of an issue in the functioning of the software. To all of us non-computer-science-students I think it's kind of like if a gust of wind blows up your skirt and then you stand on a chair and call out "Hello! Everybody just saw my underwear!" Not very elegant. So this is one issue.
The other issue is that there is a malfunction that causes this to happen in the first place. In my experience, I encounter this error message when I put in a new battery and when my phone restarts I have an unread BBM waiting for me. So this probably means either that there is logical discontinuity in how the software tells us that a BBM was sent to us while our device was powered off, or more troubling, that perhaps a BBM was lost while our phone was Disconnected from the world (though my experiments indicate this is not the case.)
If there is an error there should either be a) an attempt to find a solution, or if that is not possible, b) a formal indication of a slip in the system. For example, in the case of the undergarment exposure, to say "Oh, excuse me" to the people directly next to you would be a better solution. In this case, more appropriate ways to handle the exception is to simply remove the notification (if it is unimportant), or to tell us in English (not Java) "Some messages sent to you while your BlackBerry was powered off may have been lost."
Sincerely,
Tara Raffi
Propriety Enthusiast
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