Re: [RFC PATCH 1/3] usage: extract `prefix_suffix_lines()` from `advise()`

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: May 30, 2018, 06:00 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqq4lipel8a.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqfu29gbqp.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>

Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:

Show 17 quoted lines

> Jeff King <peff@peff.net> writes:
>
>> But most importantly, it means we could eventually colorize errors, too,
>> where we are not allowed to allocate.
>>
>> So perhaps:
>>
>>   void report_lines(FILE *out,
>>                     const char *color, const char *color_reset,
>> 		    const char *prefix, const char *msg);
>>
>> or something?
>
> Sounds good to me.  And if you hate the repeated "error:" prefix
> that makes the prefix on the second and subsequent lines included in
> cutting and pasting, we could use the two-prefix idea elsewhere in
> the thread, too.

If we do not want duplicate prefix, another approach is to leave everything including alignment up to the translators. For example,

        error(_("the first line of error.\n"
                "       ... and the second."));

could be a valid way to produce

        error: the first line of error.
               ... and the second.

on the display, and get it translated to

        ERRORX: THE FIRST LINE OF ERROR.
                ... AND THE SECOND.

with these entries for that hypothetical "shout in caps" language.

        msgid "error: "
        msgstr "ERRORX: "
        msgid "the first line of error.\n       ... and the second."
        msgstr"THE FIRST LINE OF ERROR.\n        ... AND THE SECOND."

So I do not think the two-prefix idea is necessary (and if people prefer to have repeated prefix, that can also be done perfectly well within this scheme---the second and subsequent message needs to duplicate "error:" at the beginning, which is sort of ugly, but the leading spaces for alignment we see above already knows how wide "error:" and its translation is, so it is not that much worse anyway).

But still, your suggestion to allow color/reset so that we can do without extra allocation is a good idea.