[josm-dev] Error messages in Josm

[Sebastian Klein]

Jonas Stein wrote:
> i just had a problem with josm. A friend tried to reproduce the steps and
> got a different (translated) message.
> 
> I suggest to add errorcodes and 
> not to translate error messages as things get very improper.
> Errormessages could start with 
> WW: warning
> II: information
> EE: error
> 
> That could help to filter information.
> 
> "Fatal:" seems to be not the best word to describe the situation.
> 
> 
> Example 
> JOSM will not stop working for german users:
> 
> "Fatal: failed to locate image 'markers/Bus Station.png'. This is a serious configuration problem. JOSM will stop working."
> 
> "Fehler: Das Bild 'markers/Bus Station.png' konnte nicht geladen werden. Das ist ein schwerwiegendes Konfigurationsproblem."

Sounds reasonable, but as there are hundreds of error messages, (some 
maybe not shown a single time, yet), it would be a significant burden 
for the developers to follow some rule here. Not the content of the rule 
would be a problem, but the fact that it has to enforced and explained 
to other people.

You might think, "he is just looking for an excuse", and you are right. ;)

Currently, you have at least some differentiation:
EE: error -> "this is always a coding error, please file a bug 
report"-window pops up
WW: warning -> Message on the console starting with "Warning" or "Error" 
or "Fatal"
II: information -> everything else on the console


Your particular case with a missing marker image is clearly a bug as the 
error is not fatal and JOSM will run just fine.

But if there is e.g. a preset image missing, you *want* that message all 
over the screen, so it can be fixed asap!


Sebastian