[petsc-dev] error messages

[Abhyankar, Shrirang G.]

Would it be better to have a clear separation of the error message and it's exact location from the rest of the stack trace? With regards to formatting, how about something similar to ksp_view or snes_view?

> On Feb 17, 2014, at 9:10 AM, Barry Smith <bsmith at mcs.anl.gov> wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Feb 17, 2014, at 7:30 AM, Matthew Knepley <knepley at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 7:46 AM, Barry Smith <bsmith at mcs.anl.gov> wrote:
>> 
>>   90 plus percent of PETSc users must view error messages as a “useless blob of gunk that merely tells you an error has occurred”.  How can we get them to understand that they contain useful information? Better formatting? Color?
>> 
>> There is a lot of ASCII noise around the message. Maybe we repeat the main error message above with
>> nothing around it, and tell them to look below for more info?
> 
>    It is tricky to print the right information in the right place (like the stack). I like color but Jed and Satish frown on it.
> 
>   Barry
> 
>> 
>>   Matt
>> 
>> 
>>   Barry
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> What most experimenters take for granted before they begin their experiments is infinitely more interesting than any results to which their experiments lead.
>> -- Norbert Wiener
>