> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom Lane [mailto:tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us] 
> Sent: Friday, May 16, 2003 2:45 PM
> To: Kevin Brown
> Cc: pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
> Subject: Re: [HACKERS] Error message style guide, take 2 
> 
> 
> Kevin Brown <kevin@sysexperts.com> writes:
> > Dann Corbit wrote:
> >> I really like the way the RDB and VMS log error messages.
> 
> > I'm very much in agreement here.  In addition to the 
> advantages listed 
> > above, this scheme is vastly superior to simply issuing 
> error numbers 
> > because the reader can at least get an idea of what the 
> error itself 
> > actually is even if he doesn't have the detail text associated with 
> > the error.
> 
> I didn't actually see anything to it except for a very ugly 
> spelling of ERROR:, NOTICE:, WARNING:, etc.  What exactly is 
> there in their scheme that you can't do as well or better 
> with our existing practices?

There is a unique signature that makes things easy to find. A grep for
'%' will find all errors, warnings and informational messages.  A grep
for '-E-' will find all errors.  The words 'error', 'warning' and
'notice' are not likely to be unique.  A single '%' sign might turn up
in the text of a message (e.g. a badly formed like clause) but it not
terribly common in use.  That might be done a bit better.  Maybe
something like '!%>' or some other very unlikely combination would be
better.  But not too long.  Then it would be hard to remember.

Fri, 16 May 2003 14:59:38 -0700
"Dann Corbit" <DCorbit@connx.com>
Re: Error message style guide, take 2 
"Dann Corbit" <DCorbit@connx.com> writes:
>> I didn't actually see anything to it except for a very ugly 
>> spelling of ERROR:, NOTICE:, WARNING:, etc.  What exactly is 
>> there in their scheme that you can't do as well or better 
>> with our existing practices?

> There is a unique signature that makes things easy to find. A grep for
> '%' will find all errors, warnings and informational messages.  A grep
> for '-E-' will find all errors.  The words 'error', 'warning' and
> 'notice' are not likely to be unique.

You think grep "ERROR:" is likely to get more false hits than grep "-E-"?
Somehow I doubt it.

			regards, tom lane

Fri, 16 May 2003 18:02:40 -0400
Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Re: Error message style guide, take 2 