It's got to be a duplicate, but I could not find it...
A significant number of vi.lib VIs are still outputing error codes (I32) instead of an error cluster.
For instance, the famous Ramp.vi:
returns an error -20006 if you ask for zero samples. Type in this value in the "Explain Error..." window of the Help menu and you get:
So it's not that the error code is mysterious and cannot be interpreted (I must say I was a bit puzzled by this discussion on error codes).
NI has to fight with this problem themselves. For instance, here is the code you find in the NI_AALPro.lvlib:AAL Resample Filter Prototype Design.vi:
What is that "?!+Magnifier" VI , you'll ask (AAL Error Information.vi, in the same library mentioned above)? I am probably supposed not to post it, but I will nonetheless, considering what it REALLY does:
Yep, it simply returns the same numeric error code value (again) and the call chain for the VI generating the error (but it won't tell you that the real source is the DLL called in the "Kaiser" VI above). I assume (but I can't prove) that the codes returned by the analysis library are among those recognized by the Explain Error VI.
It is not only an annoyance to not be able simply connect VIs using an error cluster wire, it does not make error handling particularly easy (basically, the way I read the answers of Aristos Queue and Norbert_B in the thread I quoted above is: "reverse engineer our VIs if you really want to 1) get the complete list of error codes it can output, 2) understand their cause").
My suggestion: Hire a couple of interns to sift through NI's VI librairies and change error code outputs into error cluster outputs with proper messages.
Obviously, for compatibility reasons, open previous code with an added unbundle primitive which will return the old error code (with a list of warning after the first compilation). You've done that before and we have survived.
