1. Challenge: Build a Color-Coded Log Viewer for Phix/Euphoria (Inspired by chat.exw)

• Posted by xecronix 3 weeks ago
• 536 views

Challenge: Build a Color-Coded Log Viewer for Euphoria (Inspired by chat.exw)

Hi all,

I am issuing a small but meaningful challenge to the Euphoria/Phix community: Build a color-coded log viewer using IUP, inspired by Pete Lomax's chat.exw.

This is not just a toy idea. It is a genuinely useful debugging tool that could make Euphoria development smoother and more modern.

Specs

• The viewer receives log entries over TCP/IP.
• It displays messages in a scrollable panel or list area.
• Each message affects the background color of all subsequent output, based on log level:

  ERROR:   -> light pink background   
  WARNING: -> yellow background   
  INFO:    -> green background   
  DEBUG:   -> white background   
  VERBOSE: -> white background 

Messages must start with the log level prefix (such as ERROR:). The background color remains in effect until a new prefix is seen.

• The viewer does not edit log entries. It simply displays them in real-time (or in buffered batches if preferred).

My Role (xecronix / Ronald)

I will modify the following `logger.e` module to optionally write to a TCP/IP socket instead of a log file. This will allow the viewer to receive logs live, without requiring file polling or tailing.

Here is the original version of the logger:

-- logger.e 
-- File: lib/utils/logger.e 
 
include ../shared/constants.e 
include builtins/timedate.e 
 
global enum SILENT, ERR, INFO, DEBUG, TRACE, VERBOSE 
 
integer log_level = VERBOSE 
sequence log_file = "bzscript.log" 
integer log_handle = -1 
 
global procedure init_logger() 
    if not file_exists(log_file) then 
        log_handle = open(log_file, "w") 
    else 
        log_handle = open(log_file, "a") 
    end if 
    if log_handle = -1 then 
        puts(1, "[logger] Failed to open log file.\n") 
        abort(1) 
    end if 
end procedure 
 
global procedure close_logger() 
    if log_handle != -1 then 
        close(log_handle) 
        log_handle = -1 
    end if 
end procedure 
 
procedure log_line(sequence level, sequence msg) 
    sequence td = format_timedate(date(), "YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss") 
    printf(log_handle, "[%s] [%s] %s\n", {td, level, msg}) 
end procedure 
 
procedure log_info(sequence msg) 
    log_line("info", msg) 
end procedure 
 
procedure log_debug(sequence msg) 
    log_line("debug", msg) 
end procedure 
 
procedure log_trace(sequence msg) 
    log_line("trace", msg) 
end procedure 
 
procedure log_error(sequence msg) 
    log_line("error", msg) 
end procedure 
 
procedure log_verbose(sequence msg) 
    log_line("verbose", msg) 
end procedure 
 
global procedure logger(integer level, sequence msg) 
    if log_handle = -1 then 
        init_logger() 
    end if 
    if level <= log_level then 
        if level = SILENT then 
            -- do nothing 
        elsif level = ERR then 
            log_error(msg) 
        elsif level = INFO then 
            log_info(msg) 
        elsif level = DEBUG then 
            log_debug(msg) 
        elsif level = TRACE then 
            log_trace(msg) 
        elsif level = VERBOSE then 
            log_verbose(msg) 
        else 
            log_error("**INVALID LOGGER TYPE**") 
            log_error(msg) 
        end if 
    end if 
end procedure 

Why This Matters

• Euphoria has always been about simplicity and power. A simple real-time log viewer supports both goals.
• If no one takes this on, I will write it in FreePascal, create a dll/so, and wrap it for Euphoria.
• But I would rather see someone here step up and keep this kind of tooling native to the language.

Imagine a custom view of complex data while stepping thru code in the trace program/debugger.
Imagine a custom view of test results simply by logging.

Who's in?

Ronald Weidner

3. Re: Challenge: Build a Color-Coded Log Viewer for Phix/Euphoria (Inspired by chat.exw)

• Posted by xecronix 3 weeks ago
• 531 views

I'll test that and let you know. But, that would be surprising to me. I can imagine cpp name mangling might be an issue? Maybe? Possibly OOP in general could be an issue? I wrote a tutorial on this a few years ago. I'll reuse that but write the dll in FreePascal to see what happens.

-- demo\theGUI\gList.exw 
include theGUI.e 
 
sequence data = {"one",{{"too",TG_RED,TG_ITALIC}},"three"} 
integer maxlen = largest(apply(data,length),return_index:=true) 
 
function get_data(integer idx) 
    if idx=0 then return length(data) end if 
    if idx=-1 then return maxlen end if 
    return data[idx] 
end function 
 
gdx list = gList(get_data,`FONT="Consolas, 12"`), 
     dlg = gDialog(list,"gList",`SIZE=240x80`) 
gSetAttribute(list,"BGCLR",TG_LIGHT_PARCHMENT) 
gShow(dlg) 
gMainLoop() 

5. Re: Challenge: Build a Color-Coded Log Viewer for Phix/Euphoria (Inspired by chat.exw)

• Posted by Icy_Viking 3 weeks ago
• 516 views

I think the CPP name mangling would be an issue, I assume it would also be an issue with other programming languages. I guess it might be possible with work-arounds or renaming/rewording the function names mangling due to OOP.

7. Re: Challenge: Build a Color-Coded Log Viewer for Phix/Euphoria (Inspired by chat.exw)

• Posted by xecronix 3 weeks ago
• 507 views

I tested this with a trivial example:

Pascal Code:

library hello_export; 
 
uses 
  Classes, SysUtils; 
 
{$H+} 
 
function say_hello(): PChar; 
begin 
  Result := 'Hello from FreePascal DLL!'; 
end; 
 
exports 
  say_hello; 
 
begin 
end. 
 

And the Euphoria that runs it:

include std/dll.e  
include std/machine.e  
include std/pretty.e  
include std/filesys.e  
 
sequence dll_name = "hello_export.dll" 
printf(1, "loading dll: %s\n", {dll_name}) 
atom lib = open_dll(dll_name)  
atom hello = define_c_func(lib, "say_hello", {}, C_POINTER) 
atom ptr = c_func(hello, {})  
sequence msg = peek_string(ptr) 
printf(1, "Returned from DLL: %s\n", {msg}) 

My only proof it works:

Owner@DESKTOP-VHI2MMV MINGW64 /c/dev/fpc_units/simple_dll 
$ eui hello_eu.ex 
loading dll: hello_export.dll 
Returned from DLL: Hello from FreePascal DLL! 

9. Re: Challenge: Build a Color-Coded Log Viewer for Phix/Euphoria (Inspired by chat.exw)

• Posted by euphoric (admin) 3 weeks ago
• 480 views

Or MQTT.

library hello_export; 
 
uses 
  Classes, SysUtils; 
 
{$H+} 
 
function say_hello(): PChar; 
begin 
  Result := 'Hello from FreePascal DLL!'; 
end; 
 
exports 
  say_hello; 
 
begin 
end. 
 

include std/dll.e  
include std/machine.e  
include std/pretty.e  
include std/filesys.e  
 
sequence dll_name = "hello_export.dll" 
printf(1, "loading dll: %s\n", {dll_name}) 
atom lib = open_dll(dll_name)  
atom hello = define_c_func(lib, "say_hello", {}, C_POINTER) 
atom ptr = c_func(hello, {})  
sequence msg = peek_string(ptr) 
printf(1, "Returned from DLL: %s\n", {msg}) 

Owner@DESKTOP-VHI2MMV MINGW64 /c/dev/fpc_units/simple_dll 
$ eui hello_eu.ex 
loading dll: hello_export.dll 
Returned from DLL: Hello from FreePascal DLL! 

11. Re: Challenge: Build a Color-Coded Log Viewer for Phix/Euphoria (Inspired by chat.exw)

• Posted by xecronix 3 weeks ago
• 470 views

Here is a mockup of what I had in mind. It's kind of a semi-functional mock-up. It does parse a log file, mark it up a little to html, and display it. Can it be done in Euphoria or Phix instead of FreePascal? Probably. I'm moving on to the actual logger now. Essentially, I'm going to rewrite the one I did in Euphoria/Phix and make it a dll. Then wrap the dll in Euphoria. Hopefully, the logger (not the viewer) will be done today or tomorrow. We'll see.

include std/filesys.e 
include std/io.e 
include std/search.e 
 
sequence cmd = command_line() 
if length(cmd) < 3 then 
  puts(STDERR, "Syntax: html_log file\n") 
  abort(1) 
end if 
sequence log_file = cmd[3] 
 
integer f_out = open(filebase(log_file) & ".html", "w") 
puts(f_out, "<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<title>HTML Log</title>\n" & 
  "<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width, initial-scale=1\">\n" & 
  "<link rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://www.w3schools.com/w3css/5/w3.css\">\n<body>" 
) 
sequence lines = read_lines(log_file) 
if begins({#EF,#BB,#BF}, lines[1]) then  -- UTF-8 BOM 
  lines[1] = remove(lines[1], 1, 3) 
end if 
for i = 1 to length( lines ) label "main" do 
  if length(lines[i]) = 0 then continue end if 
  if begins("[verbose]", lines[i]) then 
    puts(f_out, "<div class=\"w3-container w3-light-grey\">\n") 
    puts(f_out, lines[i] & "\n") 
    puts(f_out, "</div>\n") 
  elsif begins("[debug]", lines[i]) then 
    puts(f_out, "<div class=\"w3-container w3-white\">\n") 
    puts(f_out, lines[i] & "\n") 
    puts(f_out, "</div>\n") 
  elsif begins("[warning]", lines[i]) then 
    puts(f_out, "<div class=\"w3-container w3-pale-yellow\">\n") 
    puts(f_out, lines[i] & "\n") 
    puts(f_out, "</div>\n") 
  elsif begins("[error]", lines[i]) then 
    puts(f_out, "<div class=\"w3-container w3-pale-red\">\n") 
    puts(f_out, lines[i] & "\n") 
    puts(f_out, "</div>\n") 
  elsif begins("[info]", lines[i]) then 
    puts(f_out, "<div class=\"w3-container w3-pale-green\">\n") 
    puts(f_out, lines[i] & "\n") 
    puts(f_out, "</div>\n") 
  else 
    puts(f_out, lines[i] & "\n") 
  end if 
end for   
puts(f_out, "</body>\n</html>") 
close(f_out) 

13. Re: Challenge: Build a Color-Coded Log Viewer for Phix/Euphoria (Inspired by chat.exw)

• Posted by xecronix 3 weeks ago
• 444 views

I have completed the happy path for the logger. The Pascal code is shown below. If you're working on a live stream log viewer, the important bits to note about the logger are:

This is the message format. Msg can have newlines. So I made an <EOM> End Of Message delimiter. It's configurable. (see config file below)

FullMsg := '[' + LevelStr + '] [' + FormatTimestamp + '] ' + Msg;  

This is how data moves across the wire. LineEnding is configured to be platform specific.

      Data := Payload + LineEnding + MessageTerminator + LineEnding; 
      Sock.SendString(Data);   

I tightened this up a little bit. There are more details, but this shows the log levels and their strings in the correct order.

  case ALevel of 
    llSilent:      ; // no output 
    llError:       LogLine('ERROR', Msg); 
    llWarning:     LogLine('WARNING', Msg); 
    llInfo:        LogLine('INFO', Msg); 
    llDebug:       LogLine('DEBUG', Msg); 
    llVerbose:     LogLine('VERBOSE', Msg); 
  end;  

This is an example config file.

[viewer] 
in_log_file=bzlog-sample.log 
port=9595 
out_log_file=viewer-output.log 
socket_timeout_ms=30000 
message_terminator=MAGIC$sdfgsdfgsdfgEND_OF_MESSAGE 
 
[client] 
viewer_ip=127.0.0.1 
viewer_port=9595 
message_terminator=MAGIC$sdfgsdfgsdfgEND_OF_MESSAGE 
fallback_log_file=bzlog-sample.log 

Full Pascal source. This is subject to change, but it should be close enough for you if you're working on a live log viewer.

unit bzlogger; 
 
{$mode objfpc}{$H+} 
 
interface 
 
uses 
  Classes, SysUtils; 
 
type 
  TLogLevel = (llSilent, llError, llWarning, llInfo, llDebug, llVerbose); 
 
procedure InitLogger(const AConfigFile: string = 'bzlog.conf'); 
procedure CloseLogger; 
procedure Logger(ALevel: TLogLevel; const Msg: string); 
procedure SetLogLevel(ALevel: TLogLevel); 
 
const 
  SILENT     = llSilent; 
  ERROR      = llError; 
  WARNING    = llWarning; 
  INFO       = llInfo; 
  DEBUG      = llDebug; 
  VERBOSE    = llVerbose; 
 
implementation 
 
uses 
  IniFiles, blcksock, synautil; 
 
var 
  LogFile: TextFile; 
  LogFileOpen: Boolean = False; 
  LogFileName: string = 'bzscript.log'; 
  CurrentLogLevel: TLogLevel = llVerbose; 
 
  ViewerIP: string = '127.0.0.1'; 
  ViewerPort: Word = 9595; 
  MessageTerminator: string = '<EOL>'; 
  FallbackLogFile: string = 'bzscript.log'; 
  ConfLoaded: Boolean = False; 
 
procedure LoadConfig(const AConfigFile: string); 
var 
  Ini: TIniFile; 
begin 
  Ini := TIniFile.Create(AConfigFile); 
  try 
    ViewerIP         := Ini.ReadString('client', 'viewer_ip', '127.0.0.1'); 
    ViewerPort       := Ini.ReadInteger('client', 'viewer_port', 9595); 
    MessageTerminator:= Ini.ReadString('client', 'message_terminator', '<EOM>'); 
    FallbackLogFile  := Ini.ReadString('client', 'fallback_log_file', 'bzscript.log'); 
  finally 
    Ini.Free; 
  end; 
  ConfLoaded := True; 
end; 
 
procedure InitLogger(const AConfigFile: string); 
begin 
  LoadConfig(AConfigFile); 
  LogFileName := FallbackLogFile; 
  AssignFile(LogFile, LogFileName); 
  if FileExists(LogFileName) then 
    Append(LogFile) 
  else 
    Rewrite(LogFile); 
  LogFileOpen := True; 
end; 
 
procedure CloseLogger; 
begin 
  if LogFileOpen then 
  begin 
    CloseFile(LogFile); 
    LogFileOpen := False; 
  end; 
end; 
 
procedure SetLogLevel(ALevel: TLogLevel); 
begin 
  CurrentLogLevel := ALevel; 
end; 
 
function FormatTimestamp: string; 
begin 
  Result := FormatDateTime('yyyy-mm-dd hh:nn:ss', Now); 
end; 
 
procedure WriteToFile(const LevelStr, Msg: string); 
begin 
  if not LogFileOpen then 
    InitLogger(''); 
 
  WriteLn(LogFile, '[' + LevelStr + '] [' + FormatTimestamp + '] ' + Msg); 
  Flush(LogFile); 
end; 
 
function SendLogOverTcp(const Payload: string): Boolean; 
var 
  Sock: TTCPBlockSocket; 
  Data: string; 
begin 
  Result := False; 
  Sock := TTCPBlockSocket.Create; 
  try 
    Sock.Connect(ViewerIP, IntToStr(ViewerPort)); 
    if Sock.LastError = 0 then 
    begin 
      Data := Payload + LineEnding + MessageTerminator + LineEnding; 
      Sock.SendString(Data); 
      if Sock.LastError = 0 then 
        Result := True 
      else 
        WriteToFile('TCP_FAIL', 'Send error: ' + Sock.LastErrorDesc); 
    end 
    else 
      WriteToFile('TCP_FAIL', 'Connect error: ' + Sock.LastErrorDesc); 
  finally 
    Sock.Free; 
  end; 
end; 
 
procedure LogLine(const LevelStr, Msg: string); 
var 
  FullMsg: string; 
begin 
  FullMsg := '[' + LevelStr + '] [' + FormatTimestamp + '] ' + Msg; 
 
  if not ConfLoaded then 
    InitLogger(''); 
 
  if not SendLogOverTcp(FullMsg) then 
    WriteToFile(LevelStr, Msg); 
end; 
 
procedure Logger(ALevel: TLogLevel; const Msg: string); 
begin 
  if ALevel > CurrentLogLevel then 
    Exit; 
 
  case ALevel of 
    llSilent:      ; // no output 
    llError:       LogLine('ERROR', Msg); 
    llWarning:     LogLine('WARNING', Msg); 
    llInfo:        LogLine('INFO', Msg); 
    llDebug:       LogLine('DEBUG', Msg); 
    llVerbose:     LogLine('VERBOSE', Msg); 
  end; 
end; 
 
end. 
 

My next steps.

1. try and find someone to do a code review.
2. write more tests. So far I have 3 passing tests. Probably a little weak to be honest.
3. export the code as a dll/so. At the moment it's just a lib. (called units in pascal)
4. make a Euphoria wrapper for the dll.
5. if Phix wraps up differently, make a wrapper for that too.
6. get this up on github.

15. Re: Challenge: Build a Color-Coded Log Viewer for Phix/Euphoria (Inspired by chat.exw)

• Posted by xecronix 3 weeks ago
• 434 views

well... as it turns out... there are differences between Euphoria and Phix that matter in this context. Phix can only open 32 bit dlls and Euphoria can only open 64 bit dlls. (on my machine) I'm not sure if ffi helps or not, but, I got some reading to do, it seems. Darn.

17. Re: Challenge: Build a Color-Coded Log Viewer for Phix/Euphoria (Inspired by chat.exw)

• Posted by xecronix 3 weeks ago
• 420 views

Awesome. Thank you for the offer. I'll put the code and docs on github tomorrow then ping this thread. I guess I'll put binaries there too.

19. Re: Challenge: Build a Color-Coded Log Viewer for Phix/Euphoria (Inspired by chat.exw)

• Posted by xecronix 3 weeks ago
• 371 views

Mini Update

I went the UDP route. Logging is blazing fast now, and none of the weird timing issues I had before are showing up. I added a limit to the size of a single log message: 8 KB max. Anything longer gets truncated. In practice, most of my log messages are between 50 and 300 bytes, so 8 KB should be more than enough.

I also built a log viewer. It's threaded and very responsive. It's a standalone .exe, not a DLL. It can handle 1,000 log messages up to 8 KB each in near real-time. If messages come in faster than every 200 ms, the viewer buffers up to 1,000 of them and renders them in batches every 200 ms. I'm working on a static-view mode next, for reviewing log files longer than 1,000 entries.

format PE64 --GUI 
include p.exw 

21. Re: Challenge: Build a Color-Coded Log Viewer for Phix/Euphoria (Inspired by chat.exw)

• Posted by euphoric (admin) 3 weeks ago
• 344 views

That sounds awesome! Well done!

23. Re: Challenge: Build a Color-Coded Log Viewer for Phix/Euphoria (Inspired by chat.exw)

• Posted by Icy_Viking 2 weeks ago
• 300 views

Here is the Euphoria wrapper, based of the Pascal Win wrapper.

You can get the Euphoria FFI from here: [https://github.com/ghaberek/libffi-euphoria]

--Bzlogger Euphoria Wrapper 
--Written by Andy P. 
--Using FFI Euphoria wrapper 
--Using Euphoria 4.1.0 Beta 2 
 
--Note: FFI.e gives us C_STRING which wraps 'allocate_string' for us 
 
--Euphoria Wrapper based off of xecronix's Pascal bzlogger_win_wrap.pas 
 
--Note 2: DLL file must be in same folder/directory as bzlogger.e for it to load correctly 
 
include std/ffi.e 
include std/machine.e 
include std/os.e 
 
--Global vars 
public atom bzlog 
 
--Constants 
public constant LOG_SILENT = 0, 
			    LOG_ERROR = 1, 
			    LOG_WARN = 2, 
			    LOG_INFO = 3, 
			    LOG_DEBUG = 4, 
			    LOG_VERBOSE = 5 
 
--Load DLL/Shared library for various OS's 
ifdef WINDOWS then 
	bzlog = open_dll("bzlogger_32.dll") 
	elsifdef LINUX or FREEBSD then 
	bzlog = open_dll("libbzlogger_32.so") 
	elsifdef OSX then 
	bzlog = open_dll("libbzlogger_32.dylib") 
end ifdef 
 
--If can't load DLL, display error 
if bzlog = 0 then 
	puts(1,"Failed to load bzlogger_32!\n") 
	abort(0) 
end if 
 
--Wrap Functions 
 
public constant xInitLogger = define_c_proc(bzlog,"+init_logger",{C_STRING}), 
				xCloseLogger = define_c_proc(bzlog,"+close_logger",{}), 
				xLogger = define_c_proc(bzlog,"+logger",{C_INT,C_STRING}) 
 
public procedure InitLogger(sequence configFile) 
	c_proc(xInitLogger,{configFile}) 
end procedure 
 
public procedure CloseLogger() 
	c_proc(xCloseLogger,{}) 
end procedure 
 
public procedure Logger(atom alevel,sequence msg) 
	c_proc(xLogger,{alevel,msg}) 
end procedure 
 
public constant xSetLogLevel = define_c_proc(bzlog,"+set_log_level",{C_INT}), 
				xSetLogFileName = define_c_proc(bzlog,"+set_log_file_name",{C_STRING}), 
				xSetViewerIP = define_c_proc(bzlog,"+set_viewer_ip",{C_STRING}), 
				xSetViewerPort = define_c_proc(bzlog,"+set_viewer_port",{C_WORD}) 
				 
public procedure SetLogLevel(atom alevel) 
	c_proc(xSetLogLevel,{alevel}) 
end procedure 
 
public procedure SetLogFileName(sequence aFileName) 
	c_proc(xSetLogFileName,{aFileName}) 
end procedure 
 
public procedure SetViewerIP(sequence AIP) 
	c_proc(xSetViewerIP,{AIP}) 
end procedure 
 
public procedure SetViewerPort(atom aPort) 
	c_proc(xSetViewerPort,{aPort}) 
end procedure 
 
public constant xGetLogFileName = define_c_func(bzlog,"+get_log_file_name",{},C_STRING), 
				xGetLogLevel = define_c_func(bzlog,"+get_log_level",{},C_INT), 
				xGetViewerIP = define_c_func(bzlog,"+get_viewer_ip",{},C_STRING), 
				xGetViewerPort = define_c_func(bzlog,"+get_viewer_port",{},C_WORD), 
				xIsConfigLoaded = define_c_func(bzlog,"+is_config_loaded",{},C_BOOL) 
 
public function GetLogFileName() 
	return c_func(xGetLogFileName,{}) 
end function 
 
public function GetLogLevel() 
	return c_func(xGetLogLevel,{}) 
end function 
 
public function GetViewerIP() 
	return c_func(xGetViewerIP,{})	 
end function 
 
public function GetViewerPort() 
	return c_func(xGetViewerPort,{}) 
end function 
 
public function IsConfigLoaded() 
	return c_func(xIsConfigLoaded,{}) 
end function 

25. Re: Challenge: Build a Color-Coded Log Viewer for Phix/Euphoria (Inspired by chat.exw)

• Posted by Icy_Viking 2 weeks ago
• 267 views

Oh I was going off of the pascal wrapper file. Its an easy fix, I'll fix it real quick. Now they are in snake case. Euphoria reads the DLL function name how it is in the DLL. So if the function name is in snake case, you'll need the name inside the quotes "" to be in snake case. Anyways its been fixed.