Re: [PATCH 1/2] chainlint: make error messages self-explanatory

On Thu, Aug 29, 2024 at 1:07 PM Jeff King [off-list ref] wrote:

On Thu, Aug 29, 2024 at 12:03:33PM +0200, Patrick Steinhardt wrote:

quoted

I find the resulting error messages a bit confusing: to me it reads as
if "ERR" is missing the ampersands. Is it actually useful to have the
ERR prefix in the first place? We do not output anything but errors, so
it feels somewhat redundant.

I wonder if coloring "ERR" differently, or perhaps even adding a colon,
like "ERR: ", would make it stand out more.

I considered both of these ideas. Coloring "ERR" was dismissed almost
immediately due to the (admittedly tiny) bit of extra complexity and
the minimal color palette available (and since I couldn't trust myself
to not waste an inordinate amount of time trying to arrive at the
perfect color combination).

My first draft did place a colon after "ERR", but it seemed
unnecessarily noisy, so I dropped it. However, I don't feel overly
strongly about it and can add it back if people think it would be
helpful.

FWIW, I find the existing error messages pretty readable, but that is
probably a sign that my mind has been poisoned by using chainlint too
much already. ;)

Goal achieved.