[gentoo-dev] Re: Default blank lines for error, elog, einfo, etc

[Ryan Hill]

On Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:31:58 -0600
Joe Peterson <lavajoe@g.o> wrote:

> William L. Thomson Jr. wrote:
> > Just a quick thought looking over a couple ebuilds. It seems most
> > times anyone does a error, elog, einfo, or similar. They start and
> > end with a few blank lines. Calls with no arguments.
> >
> > Is there any reason not to make that a default? Other than
> > difficulty of implementation. Anytime they are invoked back to
> > back. Default blank lines are added at the beginning or end.
>
> I have run into the same dilemma - wanting to separate blocks of
> warnings/logs/info by blank space.  And the particular issue I've run
> into is which calls to use (i.e. what color to make the "*").  For
> example, I might have two possible warnings back-to-back, and each is
> conditional:
>
> if ! use flac; then
> 	ewarn "'flac' USE flag is not set.  Blah, blah..."
> 	ewarn "More blah blah..."
> 	ewarn ""
> fi
> if ! use lame; then
> 	ewarn "'lame' USE flag is not set.  Blah, blah..."
> 	ewarn "More blah blah..."
> 	ewarn ""
> fi
>
> Problem is, the blank line doesn't really belong in the "warning"
> itself
> - it's meant as a separator.  And if both happen, it makes sense to
> color the "*" logically (should it be yellow rather than, say, green?
> If the next block of output is "green", it can look funny to see a
> blank yellow as the separator, for example.
>
> Also, there is that question of whether to put the blank line before
> or after the block, and if conditional, it can be tricky to make the
> full output look nice for all possibilities.  I tend not to want to
> put a blank line at the very end of the output (trying to be
> consistent with most other ebuilds), even though that might make
> things more clear. Also, I don't know inside the conditional whether
> it might be the last block of output or of another conditional might
> follow (for example).
>
> So I am in favor of some smart code in portage to do "nice looking"
> blank line logic that would also make reading the output more clear.
> Something like "eblank" or "eseparator" could be aware of the previous
> and next "color" and do the right thing.  Putting a blank line
> consistently at the end of the ebuild output but before portage's end
> summary would be nice as well (and make it easier to spot problems
> when looking at the output).  Also, if the ebuild itself tries to
> insert blanks at the start or end, portage could remove those and
> enforce its own spacing rules...

I just throw a couple echos around any output.

echo
elog "Your shoe is untied."
elog
elog "Please run this command again when your footwear is properly"
elog "secured."
echo

I think doing any kind of automatic pretty-print formatting is
overkill, but that's just my opinion.


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