Comments on: Silencing Hazel http://www.noodlesoft.com/blog/2007/01/15/silencing-hazel/ On Mac OS X programming Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:27:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: mr_noodle http://www.noodlesoft.com/blog/2007/01/15/silencing-hazel/#comment-460 mr_noodle Tue, 16 Jan 2007 19:24:07 +0000 http://www.noodlesoft.com/blog/2007/01/15/silencing-hazel/#comment-460 Thanks for the comments. Most of the current "spew" (actually, it's mostly just one statement but it happens with every run of the background process) will be moved to debug level (there's another 'dwrite' for setting this). I could then tell users when trying to diagnose a bug to turn debugging on. Errors would still get logged to Console. Also, some spew is outside my control. If the background process crashes/terminates abnormally for any reason, launchd goes nuts with the messages. It basically remembers that it crashed and will remind you on every single run. Talk about holding a grudge. This problem will be moot as I'm going to be replacing launchd with a homegrown solution. You can read more about it in my comment at http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/245/taming-launchd Thanks for the comments. Most of the current “spew” (actually, it’s mostly just one statement but it happens with every run of the background process) will be moved to debug level (there’s another ‘dwrite’ for setting this). I could then tell users when trying to diagnose a bug to turn debugging on. Errors would still get logged to Console.

Also, some spew is outside my control. If the background process crashes/terminates abnormally for any reason, launchd goes nuts with the messages. It basically remembers that it crashed and will remind you on every single run. Talk about holding a grudge. This problem will be moot as I’m going to be replacing launchd with a homegrown solution. You can read more about it in my comment at http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/245/taming-launchd

]]> By: Mike Abdullah http://www.noodlesoft.com/blog/2007/01/15/silencing-hazel/#comment-452 Mike Abdullah Mon, 15 Jan 2007 21:09:43 +0000 http://www.noodlesoft.com/blog/2007/01/15/silencing-hazel/#comment-452 I think Daniel's suggestion makes more sense about having a private log. I also kinda wish we had a "dread" command, just for the name :) I think Daniel’s suggestion makes more sense about having a private log.

I also kinda wish we had a “dread” command, just for the name :)

]]> By: Daniel Jalkut http://www.noodlesoft.com/blog/2007/01/15/silencing-hazel/#comment-451 Daniel Jalkut Mon, 15 Jan 2007 21:00:07 +0000 http://www.noodlesoft.com/blog/2007/01/15/silencing-hazel/#comment-451 I know I'm one of the people who has consistently complained about this noisy console behavior, but I beg to differ that it's only something developers are concerned about. Sure, many users don't even know what the Console is, but the point is it is generally used for exceptional information, not for the constant ramblings of any process. It's just messy to spew to the console. And I find it somewhat ironic that an application dedicated to keeping my computer <em>clean</em> would behave this way. I'm sure I'm not the only one, and I'm sure it's not limited to developers. I think you're right that there shouldn't be a switch in the UI. If you're going to spray that much information, the default should be to log to a private log file that you can easily point customers at if they are having problems. Preferably this private log file should be maintained so that it doesn't exceed a certain size. Anyway that's my 2 cents. Last time, I promise :) I know I’m one of the people who has consistently complained about this noisy console behavior, but I beg to differ that it’s only something developers are concerned about. Sure, many users don’t even know what the Console is, but the point is it is generally used for exceptional information, not for the constant ramblings of any process.

It’s just messy to spew to the console. And I find it somewhat ironic that an application dedicated to keeping my computer clean would behave this way. I’m sure I’m not the only one, and I’m sure it’s not limited to developers.

I think you’re right that there shouldn’t be a switch in the UI. If you’re going to spray that much information, the default should be to log to a private log file that you can easily point customers at if they are having problems. Preferably this private log file should be maintained so that it doesn’t exceed a certain size.

Anyway that’s my 2 cents. Last time, I promise :)

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