ada-output-logger

An Ada logging library offspring of my JS output-logger library.

It drastically simplifies logging messages and interacting with stdout/-in while also providing a bunch of eyecandy for a better user experience.
See the list of features below!

 

Features

• Colored log levels: Info, Warn, Error & Debug
• Keep track of every log message with an output file
• Display file name to keep track of log origins even in large projects
• Overwrite a log message with the next one by marking it as remove
• Animations: 6 are shipped by default

The fundamental idea of the library is to easily construct log messages by chaining calls to public functions of Logger_Type.

It facilitates this concept by creating an instance Logger of the tagged record Logger_Dummy which every function takes as the first parameter, making them accessible through Logger by using the dot notation.
Every function then returns the Logger instance again so that you can easily chain another function call.

This creates only one minor problem because Ada forces you to handle function return values - you have to end your chain with a call to the procedure EoL (End Of Line).
This procedure only serves to consume the Logger parameter, does nothing and returns nothing.

For examples, see the logger_test.adb file.

Important

Make sure to *only* use this library for logging while it is active.
Printing yourself while the logger is active will lead to weird behavior like messages clipping into another,
as the library does clever cursor management which Ada.Text_IO does not do.

 

Include

Create a lib/ directory in your project and clone this repository into it.

Add an import at the top of your main body:
with Logger_Type; use Logger_Type;

At the top of your project's gpr file, add a with statement:
with "lib/ada-output-logger/ada_output_logger.gpr";

You can then simply compile your project using gprbuild and the library will be included in the build process.

Compiling using gnatmake is currently not supported because C sources are used as well.

 

Functions

Start constructing your message by calling Logger.
You can then chain any other function behind it, following a few rules:

• Rm, indicating that this message should be removed by the next one, must always be the first function in the chain
• Animation must always be the first, or in case of Rm existing the second, function in the chain
• Nl, indicating that a newline should be printed after this message, must always be the second to last function in the chain
• Every call chain must end with EoL; to consume the return value of the previous function in the chain
• You cannot add Nl to a message marked as Rm as it would obviously break the removal of it

For basically any possible example, please see the logger_test.adb file.