In article <3bd16402@news.povray.org> , "Rune" <run### [at] mobilixnetdk>
wrote:

> I don't get your reasoning. Please tell me again why creators of include
> files should not have the ability to output an instructive error message to
> the user.

Because the error messages tend to be assumed to come from POV-Ray most of
the time.  This is even true for warnings, but as those don't stop POV-Ray
people who don't understand the difference will just wonder but hardly ever
complain.  With an error message on the other hand, especially one that
cannot be found in the scene file it is far less likely people will
understand why they got an error because POV-Ray is pointing at one place
but showing a completely different message.

Let me give you an example question I expect to show up in p.newusers within
a few weeks after the error output would have been changed:

>>
Help!  POV-Ray doesn't like my aspect ratio whatever that is!  It says
"Parse Error: User error directive hit. Your aspect ratio will not work with
this scene!"  What am i doing wrong?
<<

I know, I know, I should not make such assumptions and because #error
directives are rare we might not see many of these problems reported, but I
am sure that we will see 50% of *all* #error problems being reported while
we might only see 0.1% of all #warning directive problems being reported
simply because a warning is something a user can ignore but an error he/she
has to deal with!


    Thorsten

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