On Thu, Aug 13, 2020 at 04:04:22PM -0400, John Cowan wrote:
> But this reminded me: Does anyone remember a system of any sort where there
> were *two* corresponding sets of alphanumeric error codes, one short and
> meaningless like F32 and the other somewhat meaningful like POWER_LOW?  I
> made up this example, but I have a feeling I saw or read about such
> a system.  I can't pin it down with Dr. Google.

Something early from Digital Research?

Not quite what you describe, but a late DR OS had the following scheme.

  http://bitsavers.org/pdf/digitalResearch/flexos/1073-2003_FlexOS_Users_Guide_V1.3_Nov86.pdf

page 4, and 128 onwards:

    The help level can have a value between 1 and 4. Your computer manufacturer sets a default help level which you can override with DEFINE.

    1 Displays the FlexOS function, the error source module, and the return code.
    2 Identifies the command and type of error in one sentence.
      An example of a level 2 error message is "COPY: Write error."
    3 Expands on the level 2 message and includes more specific information.
      An example of a level 3 message is "COPY: An error occurred writing report.txt on a:".
    4 Expands on the level 3 message and often suggests a possible solution to the error.
      An example of a level 4 message is "COPY: An error occurred writing report.txt on a: The disk a: is full. You can erase unnecessary files to free up space."

Where for scheme 1 it gave something like:

    Error Code = 80137712
    System Source Module              = Pipe System
    Function Returning the Error      = write_data
    Error Argument (long in HEX)      = 123456
    Error Argument (character string) = string

With only one of the last two lines printed, depending upon the function in question.

DF