Make your life easier

With this code

CODE

integer gnDebugLevel = 0;
integer debug(integer nLevel, string szMessage)
{
    if (nLevel <= gnDebugLevel) llSay(0, szMessage);
}

Then put a call to this function at the beginning of every event and function, and every time your script does something interesting. This is the hard part, but it will pay off.

Use a higher number for less interesting things, so you might have, for example:

CODE

default
{
    state_entry()
    {
         debug(4, "default, state_entry");
         [...]
    }
    touch_start(integer n)
    {
         debug(4, "default, touch_start");
        if (llDetectedKey(0) == llGetOwner())
        {
            debug(1, "switching to foobared state");
            state foobared;
        }
    }
}

Then, when something goes wrong down the line, all you have to do is set gnDebugLevel to a higher number, and you can see what's going on.

In the spirit of log4j and log4net, might I make a recommendation?

LVL_ALL = 2147483647
LVL_DEBUG = 1000000
LVL_INFO = 10000
LVL_WARNING = -10000
LVL_ERROR = -100000
LVL_FATAL = -1000000
LVL_OFF = -2147483648

I use something similar, but my debug function looks like this :

debug( integer nLevel, list debugList )
{
if ( nLevel < gnDebugLevel )
llSay(0, llList2CSV(debugList));
}

This makes it easier to shoot out debug messages that contain the contents of variables and such. For example :

debug(1,["someVariable:",someVariable]);

Uh, I dont know what youve been coding lately... but this seems like a LITTLE bit of overkill... for something as simple as a silly scripting language.
My code usually works right the first time. Yay me. When I have bugs its usually cause I was distracted...
The last serious bug I had was months ago, because I slightly misunderstood the nature of dataserver calls, and outputting random crap wouldnt have helped me solve it. Thankfully, Catherine enlightened me
Love ya, cat

Well clearly you're much smarter than me Eggy. When debugging I often find that what I think is happening, and the order I think these things are happening in bears only a passing resemblance to what is actually going on. But I can find that out really fast by turning on my debugging messages.

[Edit: Ohhhhh, I get it, Eggys crabby because he's from Portugal, be nice to him everyone ]

Debugging levels are a slight codesmell. It encourages one to make debug messages permanent. In my opinion debug statements ought to be stripped out after debugging.

i want macros...

I agree, as soon as my script is perfect, and I am sure I will never need to edit it again, I take out all debugging statements.

That's the problem. I almost never know when I will never need to edit a script again. I wish there was some kind of "optional statement" type thing in LSL, kinda like asserts in Java.
==Chris

Chris, I think you failed your Detect Irony roll.