Error message formatting (was Re: wavread problems)

[Quentin Spencer]

Keith Goodman wrote:

> On 5/11/05, John W. Eaton <address@hidden> wrote:
>  
>
> > Perhaps.  Can you suggest a way of doing that?
> >    
>
> (Somewhere between me sending the message, in what I think is
> text/plain, and the mailing list receiving it, little flourishes are
> added. There's a particular insistence that all equallities are 3D
> equalities. What causes that? Would you like a script to filter it
> out?)
>
> Current Octave traceback
>
> error: `fidy' undefined near line 86 column 13
> error: evaluating argument list element number 1
> error: evaluating for command near line 65, column 1
> error: called from `myfunction' in file `/big/long/directory/path/myfunction.m'
> error: called from `slick' in file `/somewhat/shorter/path/slick.m'
> error: evaluating assignment expression near line 113, column 14
> error: evaluating if command near line 26, column 1
> error: called from `rmt' in file `/random/matrix/theory/rmt.m'
> error: evaluating assignment expression near line 17, column 14
> error: evaluating if command near line 16, column 1
> error: called from `fx' in file `/octave/money/back/gaurantee/fx.m'
>
> Proposed Octave traceback
>
> ERROR: `fidy' undefined
> /big/long/directory/path/myfunction.m
>     Line  86 column 13 (argument list)
>     Line  65 column  1 (for command)
> /somewhat/shorter/path/slick.m
>     Line ??? column ?? (assignment expression)
> /random/matrix/theory/rmt.m
>     Line 113 column 14 (assignment expression)
>     Line  26 column  1 (if command)
> /octave/money/back/gaurantee/fx.m
>     Line  17 column 14 (assignment expression)
>     Line  16 column  1 (if command)
>  
I think this is a big improvement. I also have had a hard time reading 
these error outputs, and find Matlab's error messages easier to read, 
though they don't provide as much information. When I'm debugging, the 
function call stack is more useful to me than the stack of loops within 
each function, so I wouldn't mind an even shorter output format that 
omits all of the "Line .. Column ..." stuff except where the error 
occured. Perhaps yet another builtin variable (short_error_report_format 
or something like that) is in order?

-Quentin



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