On 10 Aug 2000 22:26:47 -0000, Chaim Frenkel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> =head2 Encodings
>
> I have listed some possiblities. But none of these are ideal.
>
> =head3 A unique number
> =item As an integer
> =item As a floating point number
> =head3 Unique String
> =head3 Prefixes for all error strings (Shades of Big Blue)
Well, $@ could also contain a structured 'error object' allowing
not only stringification, for
if( $@ =~ /such-and-such-error/ ) {}
situations, but also (somewhat à la VMS):
$@->facility # CORE, module name, whatever
$@->severity # fatal, informational, error, debug...
$@->message # 'file %s not found' (== stringify)
$@->data # an optional hash for additional data
Obviously, to be useful a standard classification of severity levels
(akin to the one in diagnostics) should be used, and it'd be better
if there were some hooks for modules to register unique facility
names; OTOH, perhaps not: the module name *is* it's own unique
identifier :)
/L/e/k/t/u
