[Mono-list] Diagnostic Messages

[Jonathan Pryor]

Comments inline.

On Sun, 2002-05-26 at 10:26, A Rafael D Teixeira wrote:
    >This need not be the case.  Instead, the handy
    >`System.Diagnostics.Trace' and `System.Diagnostics.Debug' classes could
    >be used, which (by default, on Windows) do not display any console
    >output.  This would allow developers to still see the messages (if they
    >need to), without having them be seen by end-users.
    >
    >The problem is that things don't behave this way under Mono, as the
    >current `DefaultTraceListener' class sends all output messages to the
    >console.  I originally did this because it was easy, but I'd like to
    >replace this with something more functional.
    
    This really, isn't like what happens on Windows.

Correct.  As detailed earlier, Trace- and Debug-generated messages are
sent through OutputDebugString on Windows.  This can be demonstrated by
starting `DebugView' (available from
http://www.systeminternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/debugview.shtml) before
running a .NET program.  Calls to {Trace|Debug}.WriteLine will appear in
the DebugView window, which is how I often view my trace/debug messages
without running the program from within a debugger.
    
    >My current idea for "more functional" is that we add a new argument to
    >mono/mint:
    >
    >	--diagnostics=[trace | debug | all]
    >
    >If `--diagnostics' isn't present, then no diagnostic messages are
    >generated.  If `--diagnostics=trace', then only calls to
    >`System.Diagnostics.Trace' would be displayed.  Similarly, if
    >`--diagnostics=debug', then only calls to `System.Diagnostics.Debug'
    >would be displayed.  `--diagnostics=all' would show messages sent to
    >both `System.Diagnostics.Trace' and `System.Diagnostics.Debug'.
    
    In windows I'm used to change the xml configuration file to disable at 
    run-time the DefaultTraceListener (remove from the Listeners collection) and 
    add a FileTraceListener to log problems in a separate file or to the 
    console. I would like that behaviour to work in Mono too, better than have a 
    switch in the interpreter/jitter.
    
I plan on implementing the functionality as well, but a
"reasonably-behaving" `DefaultTraceListener' class is higher on my
priority list.

    Rafael Teixeira
    Brazilian Developer
    
    
 - Jon