1.9 Error messages: Public Domain?

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Just a number, right?

It's the value of constant DEBUG_CHANNEL

For those of you not fluent in LSL, basically error messages got changed with 1.9, and they now are sent to this channel of chat.

You can listen to it with a simple listener command:

integer x;

x = llListen(DEBUG_CHANNEL,"","","";

Now, before they used to be spit out as green text on channel 0 - that's the channel of regular chat. Not only does this ninja-added function break old stuff - like things that used error messages to tell users there's a problem ("missing image" as an example) but it not obfuscates the messaging.

What my worry is that instead of it being obvious where error messages go, it's not intuitive for the average non-scripter user to realize there's a whole new window just to hear error messages. (Tools -> Show Script Warning / Error Window) My prediction is that users who have acquired scripts from other users that may produce error messages (whether by bad code or by some condition like the script is looking for a missing inventory item.) and the owner may have no idea why it's not working.

In other words, I predict a slew of IMs from users going "This is not working and I don't know why!" And yeah, even with error messages obvious, some users just won't get it anyway. But I think a good chunk of them might see an error message and be able to fix / diagnose the problem themselves.

So... the remedy? It seems for now we have to educate the entire SL community about the new Error message window.

Another, more subtle fear I have is that people will make listeners that listen all over on the debug channel, and will use this to be able to hack scripts that the scripter might not even realize is an issue. I can see where that might be beneficial, on the other hand. I think it's a legit worry because it's the new scripters that will be producing the errors and most likely not aware of the existance of them.


The ideal solution:
llSetErrorChannel(integer channel);
This function would let the creator of the script choose where the error messages are routed.

To boot, they borked offline messaging.

I have (and always have) offline messages set to email. Now with it checked, I dont get object IMs while online, but they go to email as if I was offline.

If this is an improvement in communications, then I have a couple bridges I'd like to sell to LL.

Wow, I had no idea it worked this way. Thanks for the info, Hiro.

Personally, I would rather (or in addition to your suggestion) see an implementation of errors as events. on_error(integer error) or something like that. Has anyone proposed such a thing?

There's an option in your Preferences to send script messages to chat. If you choose that, the messages appear in a different colour in the chat history. When the option is off, you get a clickable icon that displays script messages in a separate window. You can even send messages to this window by using llSay on the DEBUG_CHANNEL.

Seems like a fine option to me. Very useful for debugging.

I'm not sure, but I'll rubber stamp this one.

How about:
error(integer error_code, string message, integer fatal)

Where:

error_code is a numerical error that can be easily parsed, with constants like ERROR_INVENTORY_NOT_FOUND, ERROR_TARGET_NOT_IN_RANGE, etc

message is the text of the error normally output to channel

fatal is a boolean TRUE / FALSE indicating if the script had to halt

...

I'd also like to see on each script a checkbox to enter the channel we'd like to filter error messages to (in parallel to this function).


Yes, but this doesn't solve the problem I posed with new people not turning it on. I believe both the script creator and the owner of the script should be able to have these choices.


Meaning that people will be able to script malicious software that will give false error messages on channel, and people writing error-listening scripts to debug stuff will have to deal with that. That's a bad thing, not a good thing.

Surely they could have written error listeners anyway, given that most of them were said (or shouted(!?)) on channel 0 before?

Not really, because listening to channel 0 is laggy.

But it's like this - now that we have it on a channel worth listening to, why do this half-way? The feature seems rushed.

I have the same problem, I only get the first IM when I log back in, all the others, INCLUDING INVENTORY GIVEOUTS, are simply not there. I'm not gonna sleep well tonight