Now, boys and girls, about debug files...
Oyez, oyez!
To all ye who make DMODs, a question. What is your recommendation for the maximum size we ignominously ignorant players should allow? I was searching a debug file for a possible explanation of an error I was having, and found that my Notepad Plus program couldn't load it properly - it kept giving me an "out of memory" message. Very odd, since this is a better version than Windows own Notepad, and supposedly can take extremely large files. So I made a second copy of the largest debug file I had, and changed its extension to .doc, then opened it in MS Word, and it generated over 20000 pages of text before even Word quit counting them! The debug.txt file itself was 48,461 kb.
Sooo, at what point should we players delete debug files? I'd guess that when they get this huge, they could interfere with game play considerably - perhaps even cause problems with the PC.
Could someone here with the correct runes of knowledge please explain what possible problems these huge debug files can cause for us mere mortals? Obviously, deleting debug files is one way to solve any such problems. I've noticed that one of the front ends allows you to turn off generating these logs, too. But it's not a bad idea to generate them if they can sometimes help you figure out why a game crashed or something - or at least give a clue.
A major reason, of course, for these logs is to help the developer improve the game he made, as well as his skills. Where, then, shall we send these logs with valuable information for the developers? Shouldn't there be a place on one of these Dink DMOD sites that can be a receptacle for users to contribute the logs they've generated for the programmers' games? I'd be glad to help them this way, if there was an easy way to go about it.
I'm going to delete these logs in two or three days. I have such logs for most of the large DMODs. If you created a game and would like me to send the debug log I've got for it, ask now, or forever...
Will deeply appreciate responses to this question, too.
Holly B.
To all ye who make DMODs, a question. What is your recommendation for the maximum size we ignominously ignorant players should allow? I was searching a debug file for a possible explanation of an error I was having, and found that my Notepad Plus program couldn't load it properly - it kept giving me an "out of memory" message. Very odd, since this is a better version than Windows own Notepad, and supposedly can take extremely large files. So I made a second copy of the largest debug file I had, and changed its extension to .doc, then opened it in MS Word, and it generated over 20000 pages of text before even Word quit counting them! The debug.txt file itself was 48,461 kb.
Sooo, at what point should we players delete debug files? I'd guess that when they get this huge, they could interfere with game play considerably - perhaps even cause problems with the PC.
Could someone here with the correct runes of knowledge please explain what possible problems these huge debug files can cause for us mere mortals? Obviously, deleting debug files is one way to solve any such problems. I've noticed that one of the front ends allows you to turn off generating these logs, too. But it's not a bad idea to generate them if they can sometimes help you figure out why a game crashed or something - or at least give a clue.
A major reason, of course, for these logs is to help the developer improve the game he made, as well as his skills. Where, then, shall we send these logs with valuable information for the developers? Shouldn't there be a place on one of these Dink DMOD sites that can be a receptacle for users to contribute the logs they've generated for the programmers' games? I'd be glad to help them this way, if there was an easy way to go about it.
I'm going to delete these logs in two or three days. I have such logs for most of the large DMODs. If you created a game and would like me to send the debug log I've got for it, ask now, or forever...
Will deeply appreciate responses to this question, too.
Holly B.
I'd try renaming each bug file each time after you play/test the game.
i.e.
debug_050423.txt
debug_050424.txt
debug_050425.txt
Using a date or some such...
The debug aspect works by just adding to the last debug.txt file each time you launch the game.
That said, not many people use debug feature. I've used it a couple of times with scripts that seem to crash the game... but only as a helpful pointer as to what command I've used in what dumb way that has caused the problem.
Inserting say() and say_stop() commands to test various scripts is usually more helpful - you just remove/comment them out once you have the script working.
i.e.
debug_050423.txt
debug_050424.txt
debug_050425.txt
Using a date or some such...
The debug aspect works by just adding to the last debug.txt file each time you launch the game.
That said, not many people use debug feature. I've used it a couple of times with scripts that seem to crash the game... but only as a helpful pointer as to what command I've used in what dumb way that has caused the problem.
Inserting say() and say_stop() commands to test various scripts is usually more helpful - you just remove/comment them out once you have the script working.
I prefer to delete debug.txt when I use the debugger each time. Then it is short and easier to work with. And remember one good thing: you can switch the debug mode on and off (Alt+D) so there is not so much trash in the file. You can write only the things you need this way.
