On Mon, May 18, 2015 at 9:14 AM, jan i <j...@apache.org> wrote: > On 18 May 2015 at 01:48, Gabriela Gibson <gabriela.gib...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > > > > 1) Does anyone else other than me find this kind of thing useful? > > > I had not thought of it, but it is not a bad idea....just wonder where we > have output that benefit from coloring. > > I find it useful for debugging when:
1) there is a lot of output. Looking for something blue is quicker than reading it all. 2) If there is something that does not always occur and that may go under in other output. > > > > 2) Is it portable? > > > I dont think so, for a number of reasons...I would not know how to do color > on a vt100 terminal in Linux or a dos prompt in windows. > > Hmm, but I guess it would work on a cygwin xterm in windows or on a mac? As in, partially portable? ;-) > > > > 3) If 1 & 2, would you enjoy this dev debugging feature being > > added? > > > Yes an no. > > We should never use printf or similar in DocFormats, those are bound to > give problems in a number of cases. > > I discussed earlier with Peter, the idea that we make some DEBUG_PRINT > macros. The macro should contain > an #ifdef DEBUG (or similar), but most importantly it should NOT do printf. > > Instead it should print via a global function pointer (parameters like > printf). That way the main program can decide to use > printf or other functions (when we define the API, we will have a setup() > call, that could then included the function ptr. > > Going down that road, would open up for LOG_PRINT, WARNING_PRINT, > INFO_PRINT as well. > That would be handy. It's also nice to be able to leave in debugging statements sometimes and being able to turn just that suite on or off. > I am very much for the MACROS, and against a direct printf. Colors is more > a portability concern. > I did some thinking today how to keep colour out of Corinthias' hair but still be able to use it locally and had the idea that I should try and make a dynamic library for the colors, so that I can easily use it everything I do in C. I'm sure someone already wrote a RollsRoyce doing just the same thing, but, it was fun nevertheless and a good reason to learn about the topic. I am now proud owner of my very own /usr/local/lib/libcolor.so and have started to use it -- profit! :> This together with Jan's debug print macros idea makes me think that maybe there is already such a library of a good debug system out there we could use, or, if there isn't, perhaps separating this kind of service out would not be the worst thing to do -- having a great debug mechanism that I know and that just works everywhere for me would be brill. G Ps.: Btw, it appears (if one is inclined to believe a Reddit meme!) that the literal translation of the Chinese name for 'owl' is 'cat head eagle'. > rgds > jan i. > > > > > G > > > > -- > > Visit my Coding Diary: http://gabriela-gibson.blogspot.com/ > > > -- Visit my Coding Diary: http://gabriela-gibson.blogspot.com/
