[Bug-gnubg] I want to kill/reconstruct output* functions

[Øystein O Johansen]

The output functions in GNU Backgammon are really neat for lazy programers.
You simply call outputl(_("bla bla bla")); or outputf(_("bla bla %s",
szString)); and then the string is reported to the user either in the
message window, the terminal window or in the message window or in a dialog
box.

Really clever, simple to use, perfect for lazy programmers (like us ?), but
this functionality is really not very flexible. Error messages meant for
users can appear in the status bar. Silly information messages pops up as
windows as they where really important messages, and so on. It's really not
simple to control where the output string goes and this makes it hard to
design a better user interface. (I'm working on improvments now.)

Specially for gtk2.0 messages boxes, this is really not consistent. Say,
the first message box that can appear is the missing weights file. The
output message is generated with outputl() and therefore it comes up as a
information dialog? Isn't this worth a _error_ dialog? or at least a big
_warning_ dialog? There is no way to control this with the current
output*() function. I therefore think it's time to either reconstruct these
functions (How? I have some ideas, I'm really open for your ideas as well.)
or get totally rid of them. (Yes, this may be a lot of work....)

Is it worth the effort? Will it cause any problems for you? Do you like the
output*() functions?

-Øystein


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