[GRASS-dev] Re: g.rename consolidation

[Glynn Clements]

Hamish wrote:

> > In my opinion, GRASS modules are verbosed too much (e.g. see
> > r.terraflow). Message has for the user only then sence, if it is
> > error, warning or user will have to wait longer time (so G_percent
> > should be used imidietly after this). otherwise it is task for G_debug
> > 
> > So basicly, I would like to remove most of the "closing maps" and
> > similar messages. if you want to inform the user about e.g. how many
> > points were processed, we should use fprintf to stdout for it, since
> > this is not a message, but a result...
> 
> Rather than a full delete, if you wish to get rid of status/progress
> messages (for quick running modules) please move the messages to
> G_debug(1,"") etc. It would be nice to able to run with DEBUG=1 all the
> time without huge amounts of noise, so maybe some of the existing
> less interesting debug-1 messages could move to debug-2, etc.
> 
> (without violating these rules from lib/gis/debug.c)
>  * Levels: (recommended levels)
>  * 1 - message is printed once or few times per module
>  * 3 - each row (raster) or line (vector)
>  * 5 - each cell (raster) or point (vector) 
> 
> I'm still not sure when to use --verbose vs. G_debug(1,).
> ie due to the existence of G_debug(1,) is there any need for --verbose?
> When to use one or the other? Do we really need --verbose at all?

Debug output is meant for developers, verbose messages for users.

One distinction is that messages (even verbose messages) should
ideally be localised, while debug output should never be localised.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com>