suggestion to lower default logging level and add magic argument to control it about alfred-workflow HOT 3 CLOSED

if it seems like a valid suggestion, would you mind if i submit pull req?

from alfred-workflow.

Hmm. Did I not actually post my comment? Apparently not…

Basically, I don't want to change the default log level of DEBUG unless it is actually causing performance issues.

I've no objection to making it easier for workflow authors to set a different default log level (or making it more obvious: it's already simple to do). Nor to adding magic args to switch between DEBUG and INFO.

I did consider this when I went with DEBUG as the default level. Defaulting to INFO is certainly better in theory, but there are real disadvantages to requiring users to explicitly turn on debugging.

Debug logging isn't expensive in practice (it takes about 0.002s/log message), unless you're logging an awful lot (Alfred-Workflow itself isn't very talkative). 50 or 100 message will cost 1-2/100th of a second, and that seems acceptable for most situations.

Turning off debug logging by default makes it a bit more difficult for users to get at the output for reporting problems. They have to:

1. Turn debugging on,
2. Remember to turn it off again, and
3. If the workflow doesn't have a Script Filter that takes a query, a user has to grub around in Terminal or fiddle with the source code to turn on debugging.

(3) was the decider for me. I really don't want to force users (who are often not so technically inclined) to have to use Terminal to enable debugging unless it's absolutely necessary.

It's fine by me if a workflow author thinks that's acceptable, however.

from alfred-workflow.

As there have been no further responses, I'm closing this issue for the moment.

Please feel free to reopen it should excessive logging become a problem.

from alfred-workflow.