[m-users.] [mercury-users] .mh files

[Zoltan Somogyi]

On Wed, 24 Jul 2024 11:53:00 +0200, Volker Wysk <post at volker-wysk.de> wrote:
> > > I never needed to open a .err file. I'm using "--make" and the compiler
> > > outputs all error messages...

That is not actually true. The compiler outputs its diagnostics to the .err file,
and then copies an *initial subset* of those diagnostics to its own output stream.
However, unless you specify --no-output-compile-error-lines, some diagnostics
will NOT appear in the output of mmc --make.

> > Yes, I would prefer to put .err files in a subdir whenever --use-subdirs
> > or --use-grade-subdirs is in effect (that includes mmc --make).
> > 
> > Users using mmake *do* need to open .err files, but mmake doesn't use
> > subdirs by default, so maybe that is fine.
> 
> Yes, it has to be good for something, or it wouldn't be this way. It's just
> that users of "--make" don't need those .err files.

Some users of mmc --make *do* need .err files. One reason I mentioned above.
Another is that some people use automatic error-message-processing programs 
such as extras/error. A third is the Mercury test suite, which needs to compare actual
compiler-generated .err files with their expected contents.

Leaping from "I don't need this" to "nobody can possibly need this" is not
a good idea.

Zoltan.