[Privoxy-devel] atoi vs. parse_numeric_value

[Fabian Keil]

Lee <ler762 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 5/9/16, Fabian Keil <fk at fabiankeil.de> wrote:
> > Lee <ler762 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >  
> >> Now that loadcfg.c has changed from
> >> case hash_debug :
> >>    config->debug |= atoi(arg);
> >>
> >> to
> >> case hash_debug :
> >>    config->debug |= parse_numeric_value(cmd, arg);
> >>
> >> anyone else like the idea of changing the privoxy config debug flags
> >> to actually look like bit flags?  
> >
> > Who do you think would benefit from this?  
> 
> I already have; I'm just pointing out that it's fractionally easier to
> enable something like
>   log_error(LOG_LEVEL_RE_FILTER,
> now than it used to be (assuming you've copied the LOG_LEVEL_xxx
> defines in errlog.h to the config).
> 
> > Most Privoxy user are probably not familiar with bitmasks and
> > hexadecimal values so this change would make the config file
> > even more cryptic for them.  
> 
> I put the question on the developers list because I doubt it's going
> to make any difference to users either way.  They're given some
> documentation that effectively says <do this> if you want <that> to
> happen.  So as far as a normal user[*] is concerned, I don't see any
> difference between <this> being "debug 32768" or "debug 0x8000";
> either way it's a string constant.
> 
> 
> [*]  or maybe an abnormal user?  Sometimes it feels like most all
> 'normal' users don't bother to read the docs.
> 
> > As someone who understands the concept, I still find decimal
> > values easier to remember than the hexadecimal representation.  
> 
> So why the switch from atoi to parse_numeric_value?  I was a bit
> surprised that no changes were made to take advantage of the ability
> to use hex instead of decimal, so I thought I'd get the process
> started :)

The switch was made to to reject invalid input more reliably.

> > Eventually I'd like to deprecate the whole debug directive
> > and introduce something like:
> >
> > log-categories header,debug,connect...  
> 
> If you were allowed only one 'debug' line in the config I'd agree that
> a single 'log-categories' would be better.  But I'm not seeing how
> that's better than multiple 'debug' lines.

The goal is to make it more obvious which categories are enabled.

Fabian
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 819 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <https://lists.privoxy.org/pipermail/privoxy-devel/attachments/20160510/6a63a802/attachment.bin>