Just wanted to report this error....

first time I got this one

Error on this page

Exception:java.lang.NullPointerException

wanted to make sure it was nothing serious :) Merry Xmas :)

Thanks for a great site :)

Megan, it's not quite enough information to be useful. There's no indication which java applet died, nor a stack trace to indicate which function within that program that had the problem.

What might be more helpful is if you can reliably do it again, then tell us the simplest set of steps to reproduce the problem.

Then the problem can be identified and fixed.

sorry i asked...i really don't know just wanted to report it. didn't know i'd get the 3rd degree. Sorry for asking.

well here is the problem..i play 10 games on the site and then it freezes and I can't get back on. Its not just once in a while its all the time. probably every time I play. Maybe that is where the error is coming from.

don't be sorry. keep up the good work.

didn't mean to give you the 3rd degree.

finding and fixing bugs is not easy, and most people don't realize the type of information to look for that would be the most helpful for developers.

Megan, I don't think Dennis is being rude to you. He's just pointing out how you can help better to locate and fix the error. The "nullpointer exception" is simply too general for anyone to fix it. (In layman's terms, it means that the java interpreter has tried to do something with an object where there is none.) Providing for example a stacktrace with the error report gives more of a clue as to what part of the program has malfunctioned. Saying "nullpointer" is a bit like handing in your bike at the repair shop, saying "It sounds a bit funny." Providing a stacktrace is like saying something like "The hub of the front wheel is loose."

well in "lamans terms" it just popped up...what more do u want. I'm not a web developer. Just want to play games on your site. Usually when people get errors they can't explain what they did..it just happens.

This is megan's husband. She got really upset about the whole thing so i thought i would give my advice for future people that post.

she wrote:

Exception:java.lang.NullPointerException

because that that is exactly what the site told her. it didn't give her a stack trace or any other information to give you. if it had she would have given it to you.

I agree that this error is vaigue at best, but there is no reason to be rude, or condescending about, just because she isn't a programer.

All she was trying to do, is tell you what happened. Again, she can't tell you what she doesn't know as that was all the information she had, and she was being "nice" by pointing the error out to you.

Hi Megan, just noticed the posts and wanted to help smooth things over a little. First off, I'm sorry you were upset by the whole ordeal. Computers can be a pain sometimes, and can try anyone's patience. However, I do think part of it was a misunderstanding about where people are coming from on this site. Unlike a lot of sites out on the internet, the little golem community is very friendly. You don't have people posting personal attacks or mean spirited posts ever. Most people on here are very polite and try to help you out as best as they can. Dennis wasn't trying to belittle you in any way, his response was a desire to help you out. He was looking for more information on the situation to see if he could help you fix it. The other thing to realize, is that little golem is very international, and a lot of the time english is not that person's first, second, or even third language. As a result, sometimes the meanings and connotations of words are lost or muddled. Alan's bike metaphor would have probably have worked better as a car. He wasn't implying that fixing a computer is as easy as fixing a bike, just that when you talk to the repairman about the noise, he needs to know if it's when you turn the key, turn your wheels, shift, etc. As for computer jargon, I have no idea what a stack trace is(maybe a new snack?) nor do i know what a java interpretor is and that was a layman term for Alan. Programmers have their own language. I think what they were looking for was the 10 game lead up info, if it was maybe a particular game that caused it to shut down. If they know the steps you take to get there, they can sometime's identify the problem. Sometimes it's also the site that is down and won't let you on.

The people on here care a lot about the site and try to make it welcome for everyone. When people talk to you on here, it's not to put you down, it's from a sincere desire to help out. I hope you continue to enjoy little golem and wish you a happy holidays.

Thanks Subtleblue :)

I think I may have misunderstood but at the same time I feel belittled when someone talks down to me and it seemed that is what was being done. It has not only been done to me on this site but to other people as well.

There is nothing else I could tell you about the error and trust me I won't post on this board again, but if I had any other info don't you think i would give this to you? My brother in law is a programmer and he has never talked to me in a belitteling way. You can delete this post now. In the future I'll ask someone else who won't downgrade my intellegence.

Dear Megan,

I am not a native English speaker. English is my third language. But, I think this is interesting, since I really do not understand why you think that someone talked to you "in a belitteling way"? I agree totally with Subtleblue in his comments, but I would be very interested in exactly what words you think were used in a belitteling way? I could very well have experessed my self just as Dennis and so I would be happy to improve my politeness in expressing things in English.

Merry Christmas to all (Feliz Natal)

Ricardo

Merry Xmas to all! This type of problem should not upset anyone. I have seen it a few times myself and although I know quite a bit about web programming I am not really sure what caused it. I think it happens sometimes when you press the Refresh of Back buttons on your browser but I'm not sure about it anyway. It's sure however that the error report is just that and no other information is given

If it is the same problem I think that it sometimes happens when I press "back" too. To correct it I press "forward" and it gets me to my previous move. Or I re-enter Littlegolem.net.

And Mary Christmas to all :)

Hello Megan,

I agree with Subtleblue's post. I also wish to apologise in case I caused more confusion than I helped clear up with my post.

A car might have been a better metaphor than a bike.

The java interpreter, in case anyone's interested, is a program that runs java code. "Interpreter" in this case means "program that interprets program code". java is a programming language developed by Sun Microsystems and is used all over the Internet for client/server applications (for example game sites). Its chief virtues are portability (i.e. you can run it on every computer with a java interpreter) and a large class library (a collection of ready-to-use program parts).

A stack trace is a description of the parts of the program that have been visited before the error occured. With the stack trace, one can often more easily determine how and why the error occurred, because the most recently visited parts of the program are likely to have caused the error. Sometimes a web page shows a stack trace along with the error, and sometimes it doesn't.

I assure you that I do not wish to belittle you, nor do I believe it is the intent of anyone else in this forum to make you feel bad for reporting an error. Hope you accept my sincere apologies for this misunderstanding, and that this chain of events will not make you refrain from posting in the future.

Merry Christmas.

People have responded as if she's encountering an error on her machine (as she might if she was running an applet). Are you sure that's the case? I think she's just seeing the short report of an error that is generated on the server, and so could have no stack trace to report.

No, lg doesn't have java applets as far as I know, so it was most likely a server error. Even so, sometimes the server app reports the exception along with a complete stack trace. (Which is probably not optimal for security reasons, since a potential hacker might gain insight in the internals of the server app.)

Just to clear Megan's name a bit here, I (who am a programmer), also encountered this error on one of my games. It is indeed a server error, and there was NO other diagnostic information available there besides the NullPointerException. So Megan's description was perfectly accurate. =)

I think you all have too much time on your hands.

:)

Hi, Dennis, please continue to be helpful, and try not to be discouraged. Most of the people will find your message sincere and helpful, containing no trace of belittling and condescending at all (though it may not qualify as the most courteous one in the world :) )

I think ... Adrian Petrescu just revived an old thread :)

ah, now that you mention this fact... I was wondering, why in the world do people say "merry christmas" in late november", now by looking at the dates of the postings this suddenly makes sense. :-)

But the "no pointer exception"-error seems to still be there sometimes. I had it once today, but hitting "back" and then "Send move" again worked. No problems for the rest of the day (and I made about 80 moves today), though.

Just got it too now, for the first time. Really uninformative error, by me, just this red box.

bump