DIALOG USER ERROR DIAGNOSIS, SEVERITY, AND HELP TECHNIQUE

An improvement is disclosed to the conventional field related help facility in an interactive data entry data processing system. The improvement comprises a technique for a detailed analysis of all dialog errors, recommended solutions and predicts the application response if the error is not corrected. This is accomplished by building a data base of extended diagnostic message sets which are uniquely addressed by at least the data entry dialog name and the error bit mask generated by an analysis of data entered by a user. Then at the user's request, the error summary data consisting of an error statement, suggested solutions, and a prediction of what will happen if the error goes uncorrected are presented for all errors detected.