More descriptive error messages / error logging

[stevenrick]

When errors come up, people using the application may not understand why or know how to troubleshoot / debug the problem. Error messages should be descriptive and thorough enough to not only say what went wrong but also guess at why it went wrong. For example, if a video stream could not be opened, is that because it is open elsewhere?

Looking beyond this more human-centered description of the issue and how to troubleshoot/resolve it, there might still be utility in a more technical explanation of what is wrong. This could be moved to a more detailed and secondary error message (UI having some sort of expandable section for the smaller more detailed technical message).

Alternatively the application can dump technical messages to a log file and forego the front end entirely. This should be handled in an asynchronous and append-only manner so that should the application crash the logs not be corrupted, lost, or destroyed.