Re: [Tinycc-devel] RFC: Colored warnings/errors ?

[gz8cx4]

Hello Nicolas,

On Sun, May 12, 2024 at 01:35:14AM +0200, Nicolas Sauzede wrote:
> I created a very simple mob branch to color warnings/errors output, just
> like GCC and Clang.

> It uses `isatty(2)` (unistd.h) to detect if the output should be colored
> (default) or not (eg: piped to a file) to behave like GCC and Clang.
> 
> What do you think ?

My opinion is not of a tinycc developer, but of an active user.
I am thankful for your effort to improve tinycc.

On the other side, as a software user, I do not appreciate coloring when
it is on by default and needs an opt-out or a workaround to avoid.

Unless coloring is to be activated by a run-time option, it would
become a quality loss for me and probably also for some others.

No doubt, many people seem to like coloring. Sometimes me too,
but as an optional mode.

Also, adding code to tinycc which is not related to its function as a
compiler, even if this potentially improves its quality as a development
environment, contradicts unfortunately the "tiny" quality. The added
bytes never go away.

I would prefer a _separate_ filter program capable of coloring tinycc's
warning/error output. Then the functionality is optional and easy to
activate via a trivial wrapper, without adding a single extra byte to
tinycc. The overhead of a wrapper is irrelevant when you are supposed
to *watch* the output on a terminal.

That's what I think.

Regards,
/tccm