I use a little function called writeln in all my classes to keep track of where my traces are coming from. i started doing it to keep myself from going crazy when seeing random text come up in the output panel and not knowing where or how it got there- not to mention running through an app and then have that panel open up out of nowhere to tell me something that i have no idea what it means.
Recently i have been loving this new debugger Keith Peters’ unleashed, and coupling my writeln with it has put a smile on my face.
i have extended the arguments in my writeln and now i can trace (recusively no less, thanks keith) with a specified level of importance and color coding!

Basically, what once was this:

function writeln(str):Void  

{  

    trace(”#com.site.MyClass#\n     – ” + str);  

}

..has become this:

function writeln(str, line:Number, type:String, clear:Boolean, levels:Number):Void  

{  

    if(clear)  

    {  

        Debug.clear();  

    };




    type = (type == undefined) ? “DEBUG” : type;




    if(arguments.length < 5)  

    {  

        Debug.trace("\n#com.site.MyClass#\n     " +  line + "- " + str, Debug[type]);  

    }  

    else  

    {  

        Debug.trace("\n#com.siteMyClass#\n     " +  line + "- " + str);  

        Debug.traceObject(str, levels, Debug[type]);  

    };  

} 

..with this somewhere in the class file:

writeln("i'm debugging!", 20);  

or

writeln(someObject, 20, "INFO", false, 1);  

and with the FlashDedugPanel open i gets all i needs.

i'd like to do something with that if(clear), i just don't like it... but for now i'm very happy.

thanks again Keith and Tim

Posted in Flash.