Managing error strings in C
Brad Appleton
brad at SSD.CSD.HARRIS.COM
Wed Jan 23 03:08:40 AEST 1991
Just wanted to add my $.02 ...
So far, All Ive seen on this thread talks only about associating text, and a
unique number to an error as in:
{ EFOO, "unable to foo" },
.
.
.
The stuff on parameter expansion/substitution in the format string is
interesting, however I believe one more thing should be included as part
of the "error" object - namely a severity (or level), as in:
{ EFOO, WARNING, "unable to foo" },
.
.
.
The most common severity types are:
1) Diagnostic (information messages only)
2) Warnings
3) Non-Fatal Errors
4) Fatal Errors
I have also seen more "severity" levels used by adding an element of
user control to Warnings and Non-fatal errors such as, conditionally prompting
to continue or forcing termination after warnings and/or non-fatal errors
(such behavior may have been specified on the command-line and/or in an
environment variable).
I think it is important to have some sense of severity associated with the
error in addition to its text and its id! As to the kind and number of
severities or levels, that by itself is a worthy topic for discussion!
______________________ "And miles to go before I sleep." ______________________
Brad Appleton brad at ssd.csd.harris.com Harris Computer Systems
uunet!hcx1!brad Fort Lauderdale, FL USA
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Disclaimer: I said it, not my company! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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