Re: BRL error handling

[Bruce Lewis <address@hidden>]

(Finally getting time to reply to this.)

"Ash Searle" <ash@hexmen.com> writes:

> Bruce Lewis wrote:
> > If this newbie had an analagous problem with mail in BRL, he would have
> > gotten a meaningful error message by default.  There may be some global
> > errno you can check if PHP mail() returns false, but I don't know what
> > it is, and none of the examples I've seen so far check the return value.
> 
> That is more the fault of the PHP examples than the language itself.  I
> don't know how/if BRL allows you to catch errors where they occur, but
> regardless.... I think error message reporting when there is a documented
> return value to check would be a bit OTT, and possibly annoying.  Of
> course, good error messages help track down the problem, but I can't
> comment on this more without knowing how good BRL's error messages are.

Errors are thrown unless explicitly caught.  The error messages come
from different sources: Java, Kawa Scheme, an SMTP server or database
server.  Errors thrown result in an HTML page that shows the message,
provides a stack trace (trimmed thanks to a suggestion from Jonathan
Bachrach), and links to an on-line user-maintained database of error
causes, as of the latest release.

> What's your position on whether "everything is a string" is newbie
> friendly or not? (perhaps that should be obvious from your aims
> with BRL...  I'm not sure I equate text output with treating
> everything as a string though.)

My position is "not necessarily".  Talking about this issue too much
would likely lead to a static vs dynamic typing thread, which I'd just
as soon avoid.

> Oh, and another question.  Did you come up with the name BRL before
> or after the pharse "Beautiful Report Language"?

BRL first.  It's unlikely that I'll have another opportunity to write
something so significant.  I feel like I was in the right place at the
right time.

> When all's said and done, I'll be making sure I spend some time
> playing with BRL as it does hold interest for me personally.  I'm
> curious to see how long it'll be before I get over my aesthetic
> disgust at:
> [)]

Have you gotten over your aesthetic disgust at <% } %> yet?  I think [)]
will require a similar amount of time.

Now is the time to play with it.  The latest release makes it friendlier
than ever.

-- 
<brlewis@[(if (brl-related? message)    ; Bruce R. Lewis
              "users.sourceforge.net"   ; http://brl.sourceforge.net/
              "alum.mit.edu")]>