Re: [boost] Boost.Logging hex dumps (Was: Boost.Logging: formal review)

From: Gennadiy Rozental (gennadiy.rozental_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-11-15 03:55:22

"Vladimir Prus" <ghost_at_[hidden]> wrote in message 
news:dlc4gb$qlb$1_at_sea.gmane.org...
> John Torjo wrote:
>
>>>>>3. Design: hexdump
>>>>>I believe log library needs to provide support for dumping
>>>>
>>>>memory in hex
>>>>
>>>>>format on log file. It could be an addon to core functionality.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>I can add this, even though I'm not sure why you'd want this.
>>>
>>>
>>> Yes, Yes, I use the log file for an error log. Being able to do a raw
>>> (hex) dump of the offending packet would be very useful for postmortem
>>> analysis - provided this functionality could still be available in the
>>> light-weight version :/
>>>
>>
>> Ok, will do.
>
> But note that will can bloat the library. Showing hex data is a much 
> harder
> thing that it seems, just look at the amount of suggestions made by
> KDevelop users: http://lists.kde.org/?t=112549947100004&r=1&w=2
>
> (BTW, some of the wanted hexdumps exactly for looking at network packets,
> just like Matt mentions in the previous email).
>
> I'd suggest supporting some very simple format, and resisting all user
> requests to extend it. A separate GUI tool might be better suited for
> showing hex dumps.
>
> - Volodya

My library prints something like:

00000000 74 65 73 74 | 5F 73 74 72 | 69 6E 67 
test_string\n\n
....

in total 50 lines of code.