[Scummvm-devel] debuglevel in config file

[Travis Howell]

From: "Max Horn" <max at quendi.de>
> I am toying with the thought of just completely removing support for 
> setting a debug level in the config file.
>
> There seems to be no good reason for this feature in the first place; we 
> mostly do it because we can, I think. However, that causes some headache 
> in the code when it tries to keep the global gDebugLevel in sync with the 
> value stored in the config manager (we have to store it in a global due to 
> speed reasons, otherwise using debug() extensively, as we currently do, 
> would slow us down to a crawl).
> In all the times I work on ScummVM, I have used debug levels a lot, but I 
> always set them via the command line (-d), never ever did I set it via the 
> config file, nor did I ever have any desire for it. I tried hard and can't 
> think of any scenario were being able to do that would have offered me any 
> benefit...
>
> So, if anybody has some realistic scenario (or even better, a real 
> experience) were setting the debuglevel via the config file is/was/would 
> be useful, please tell me. Otherwise, I'll just remove this (mis)feature 
> ASAP.

I always use a debugLevel 1 setting in my config file, since I find the 
internal debug output of SCUMM games (Especially HE games) often helpful. 
The internal debug output of HE games is often quite detailed and was 
helpful in solving some sprite related bugs for example. The debug mode of 
HE games is currently based off the debuglevel setting at the moment too and 
even more useful. In HE80+ games, the debug mode provides:
A debug room with access to all room of game.
A debug room with access to all items needed in game.
A debug room to select the paths to complete the game (Multiple paths are 
possible and choose at random on startup).

So please try to keep the debuglevel as a config file option if possible.