Eli5 When applications crash, why do they provide an obscure error code instead of a small description of what the issue actually is?

Question

Eli5 When applications crash, why do they provide an obscure error code instead of a small description of what the issue actually is?

In: Technology

Answer 1

Of course it depends on the application. Some do intentionally write out an obscure code. However most of the time the error message is a perfect description of what the problem is but is written for the developer who have the code in front of them. Many error messages are actually from third party libraries and tools used to make the application and have no idea what the application actually does so it can not give a description that any user can understand.