Re: GNAT user-specified (via Raise_Exception) warning message size limit

[marciant@earthlink.net]

On Saturday, February 17, 2018 at 3:08:35 AM UTC-5, J-P. Rosen wrote:
> Le 17/02/2018 à 00:22, marc...@earthlink.net a écrit :
> > Some XML text messages are being parsed "deep" down in a subsystem
> > and when a problem is encountered a specific exception is raised and
> > the problematic XML text is included in the exception message and
> > propagated up a "level" or two of code where it is sometimes parsed
> > again and repropagated with additional debugging information.
> But why do you put all the message in the exception message?
> 
> Store it in some global structure, where you can handle it any way you
> want. Note that it's what you'd do if you wanted to keep information
> other than string (assuming you have no issue with concurrency, but then
> you could use a task attribute)

In the exception message for a few reasons:
- The information was always all text (an externally produced structured message)
- The final length was always unknown
- All debugging/logging "machinery" was originally designed to expect to only have to simply print out Exception_Information.
- For years it had all fit (including full/deep, explicit ObjectAda call trace back debugging information)
- Design for portability was never a requirement: The project was supposed to have been superseded a few times already by (non-Ada) projects that themselves ended up being cancelled.

However, like you suggested, I understand that using a global area (possibly indictated by "place-holder" text that is put in the exception message instead of the actual text) might be made to work with minimal disruption to the existing code.

Thanks,
Vincent Marciante