Editing 2200: Unreachable State

An {{w|error message}} is information shown when a computer program encounters a problem that the programmers did not anticipate, such as if the URL given to a web browser does [[404|not correspond]] to any page on a website. Most sites have customized error pages, from the [[404|simple]] to the [https://www.kualo.co.uk/404 creative].

This comic shows [[Cueball]] reading an strange error message from a program he is using. The programmer seems to have written this text while tired, so the message seems rather hopeless, bordering on the existential. The idea behind it is that the author of any error code hopes that no one will have to see it, because that would mean that the program is working perfectly, but the fact that they are writing it means they know the program will eventually fail. This could make the whole idea of writing a program seem rather hopeless; that hopelessness is associated with tiredness in the caption.

The title text refers to the common trope of a character being given a "magic" item and winning something because of it, then being told that the item was not actually magic and that the magic was [https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagicFeather?from=Main.TheMagicWasInsideYouAllAlong inside them all along]. It is often used as a fable to tell people to follow their dreams. The title text puts the fable in a place where it doesn't belong, saying that finding the "unreachable state" that is the error code implies that the finder can do anything.

:[Cueball, sitting on an office chair at his desk, with his hands over his laptop computer is reading an error message on the screen. What he reads is displayed above him with a zigzag line from the screen to the text. The exclamation mark at the top is shown in white on a black triangle.]

:If you're reading this, the code is in what I thought was an unreachable state.

:On a deep level, I know I'm not up to this task. I'm sorry.

[[Category:Computers]]