Message watcher enhancement

[dunbarx]

I would love to be able suppress everything except for certain messages. In other words, an "Allow Only" field.

The current suite of tools permits one to suppress all sorts of things, but not to ALLOW only a specific list of things. The clutter one gets if "Suppress IDE messages" is not checked makes it impossible to see a (perhaps IDE) message of interest among the hundreds that appear at lighting speed.

Craig

[richmond62]

That bonkers scrolling of endless messages is the reason I do not use the Message Watcher.

Were the Message Watcher settable (erm, is that a real word?) to what feedback one required it would be marvellous.

[dunbarx]

Richmond.

I play a lot of Scrabble.

"Settable" sounds like it ought to be good. It isn't.

Craig

[FourthWorld]

When I use a Message Watcher the greatest value I get from it is learning which unexpected things are happening.

Tracking a single message isn't hard, but can you help me justify the time I might spend enhancing my Flight Recorder with a use case?

[richmond62]

unexpected things

I suppose so, but as those 'unexpected things' flash by so quickly, I rarely, if ever, spot them.

[FourthWorld]

unexpected things

I suppose so, but as those 'unexpected things' flash by so quickly, I rarely, if ever, spot them.

Yeah, the bundled MW is nearly useless for practical work.

That's what prompted me to write 4W Flight Recorder, available in the Stacks section of LiveNet (see GoLiveNet in your Plugins menu).

[dunbarx]

Tracking a single message isn't hard,

Richard.

That is exactly what I want. You can suppress single messages, but how do you accept only single messages?

Craig

[dunbarx]

Richmond.

That bonkers scrolling of endless messages if the reason I do not use the Message Watcher.

It isn't so bad if you use the filters. Certainly "Suppress IDE Messages" and likely lose "mouseMove".

I was actually trying to see what the IDE message "revEditScript" was up to, but if I let IDE messages have its way, forget about finding it, or when it arrives.

Craig

[paul@researchware.com]

I would also support an enhancement to the IDE message watcher that allow you to filter to just a single message or messages (and show list) in addition to the current hide messages filter.

[FourthWorld]

An enhancement request will take a while to to implement.

You can enjoy tailored message watching right now, and a lot more.

This is 4W Flight Recorder, available right now from your LiveCode IDE (see the Stacks section of GoLiveNet, in your Plugins menu).

This screen shot shows 4W Flight Recorder in action, with features far beyond the old MetaCard Message Watcher still used in the LC IDE.

In 4W Flight Recorder:

• Messages tracked are filterable by not just message name, but by pattern as well.

• Displayed messages are shown indented in an outline format, so you can easily understand the path from user event through everything triggered by it.

• Profiling is provided in the "MS" ("milliseconds") column, showing aggregate time spent in a given handler (and number of times the handler was called in response to the event).

• Double-clicking any line opens the script where the handler resides.

• Display can be saved as a tab-delimited file for later reference.

(That screenshot also shows us that the engine's traditional method for making OS-savvy group appearances --2px border w/3D -- is no longer maintained well on Linux, and that LC's home stack is going wild in the latest version with calls to its environment-checking, but those are just curiosities unrelated to the 4W Flight Recorder tool itself, but worthwhile to see how easily such issues are exposed by running the tool).

Like everything else I share with the community, 4W Flight Recorder's scripts are open, there is no fee to use it, and it's compatible with all versions of LC from 7.0 through 9.6.3.

Maybe there's a feature request for filtering LC's Message Watcher. Maybe they can add that enhancement to their work queue soon.

But it's unlikely to include everything 4W Flight Recorder has.

And 4W Flight Recorder is already available. Today:
Development -> Plugins -> GoLiveNet