[crossfire] [Crossfire-cvs] CVS commit: client

[Yann Chachkoff]

>   Given (IIRC) that the client does not currently register itself with
> gnome of KDE, I'd expect most people to actually run from the command line.
>
>   Any my experience is that very few programs will dump out all that
> information by default.  And one problem in doing so is that it can be
> harder to see real error messages.
>
It sounds like backward thinking to me. That most people have to run the game 
from the command line (and thus, see all what the client can spit out) seems 
to be the point to solve, and not the messages provided.

Moreover, if the error messages are hard to spot, then make them more obvious 
(add stars around them, write a couple of !!!, shift them, add blank lines 
before and after them, etc). I'd also underline that the error messages 
targetted at the player shouldn't only go to the console, but also be clearly 
visible from the GUI itself in the first place whenever possible. 

In such a case, the player would logically first report the short error 
message he/she saw in a dialog box. Then, if details are needed, he/she can 
sends the whole content of the console messages. Sounds a much better way to 
make at least common errors easier to spot for the player than completely 
hiding what's basically useful information.

>   Probably the correct solution is to add a -V or --version option to the
> clients which dump out that information - that is what most all other
> applications do.  It hides the information people don't need by default,
> but still provides a way to get that information in case of bug reports,
> etc.
>
The question is: which informations are needed by default ? I think the "Info" 
should have an obvious meaning: provide a couple of informations that *may* 
be useful in several cases, debugging being one of them.

If some informations are judged superlfluous at the default level of log 
(typically, what's required only for debugging/post-mortem analysis) then 
those should be put back in the "Debug" log level, which would appear only 
when the verbosity is explicitely increased.

Finally, I don't get why this change was done in the first place - I've so far 
never heard anybody bothered by the amount of log messages provided in the 
console; besides that, there are relatively few messages displayed, even at 
the "Info" level. So not only does the change of the default verbosity level 
in the client sound detrimental to me, but it solves a problem that didn't 
even exist in the first place.

>
> > Crossfire CVS repository messages. a écrit :
> >> Module Name: client Committed By: mwedel Date: Sun Jul 2 03:19:43
> >> UTC 2006
> >>
> >> Modified Files: client: ChangeLog client/common: misc.c
> >>
> >> Log Message: common/misc.c: Make default log level 2 when not in
> >> debug mode. Normal users probably don't want all the INFO log
> >> messages, and it never makes a good impression about
> >> stability/quality if a program spews out lots of errors or other
> >> messages. MSW 2006-07-01
> >
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> > Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux)
> >
> > iD8DBQFEp7ZlHHGOa1Q2wXwRAsHYAJwNpQ3aGDts/IfYbJdPYeGvX6VFEACeJoky
> > wxfJo+dw4uAaI3ySSS6aYYI> > =fnnG
> > -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > crossfire mailing list
> > crossfire at metalforge.org
> > http://mailman.metalforge.org/mailman/listinfo/crossfire
>
> _______________________________________________
> crossfire mailing list
> crossfire at metalforge.org
> http://mailman.metalforge.org/mailman/listinfo/crossfire

-- 
Yann Chachkoff
-----------------------
GPG Key 2006: http://keyserver.veridis.com:11371/export?id=-43113965597490782
Fingerprint : C224 F1F9 9025 4FC7 987D 05BB FF66 D413 A3B4 01A2
-----------------------
"They misunderestimated me."
                                 - George W. Bush
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman.metalforge.org/pipermail/crossfire/attachments/20060703/1ac8400e/attachment.pgp