Re: [TCLCORE] Error messages for [apply]

[miguel s. <mi...@ut...>]

Neil Madden wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I've been playing with [apply] (TIP 194) a lot recently, since it was 
> added to the core. One thing I've noticed is that the error message it 
> gives in the case of invalid arguments is rather unreadable, as it 
> contains the full string representation of the body of the procedure. e.g.:
> 
> % set func [list {a b} { ... a long body spanning multiple lines } ::]
> {a b} { ... a long body spanning multiple lines ... } ::
> % apply $func 12
> wrong # args: should be "apply {{a b} { ... a long body spanning 
> multiple lines ... } ::} a b"
> 
> On the one hand, this is helpful for debugging as you can see what the 
> body of the procedure is (it might not be available otherwise, unlike a 
> normal proc where you can use [info body]), but on the other it makes 
> for fairly unreadable error messages (somewhat like C++ STL errors).
> 
> Is it possible to change the error message to something a bit terser? 
> For instance just something like:
> 
> wrong # args: should be "<proc> a b"
>     while applying procedure
> {{a b} { ... etc ... }}
>     while executing
> apply $func 12
>     ...
> 
> i.e., move the more detailed message to ::errorInfo, and keep the 
> initial error message short and to the point. What's the procedure for 
> getting such a change made? Does it need a TIP amendment or new TIP ... ?

I do not think any TIP gymnastics will be needed here. I'll take a look 
at what code contorsions could achieve this, and report back.

Miguel