ITK OutputWindow on windows

blowekamp · August 2, 2018, 6:08pm

On MS Windows the current default behavior is to log certain things to a “window” as opposed to std::err:

InsightSoftwareConsortium/ITK/blob/master/Modules/Core/Common/src/itkOutputWindow.cxx#L131


{
if ( !OutputWindow::m_Instance )
  {
  // Try the factory first
  OutputWindow::m_Instance  = ObjectFactory< Self >::Create();
  // if the factory did not provide one, then create it here
  if ( !OutputWindow::m_Instance )
    {
    // For the windows OS, use a special output window
#ifdef _WIN32
    OutputWindow::m_Instance = Win32OutputWindow::New();
#else
    OutputWindow::m_Instance = new OutputWindow;
    // Remove extra reference from construction.
    OutputWindow::m_Instance->UnRegister();
#endif
    }
  }
/**
 * return the instance
 */

I think it makes more since to opt into a GUI. std::err seems to work fine with the modern visual studios too, which I think may have been the reason for the GUI window before.

What does everyone thing of changing this so it default stderr like the other OS?

matt.mccormick · August 2, 2018, 6:35pm

Sounds fine to me.

dzenanz · August 2, 2018, 8:48pm

Those windows are not overly functional. If the debugged program does not hit a break-point, there is usually not enough time to read the message. And with plenty of tests being run one after another, those windows can be somewhat disturbing, too. I am fine with changing the default.

lassoan · August 3, 2018, 6:13pm

I find console output much more usable than the popup window. The popup is either closed too early (before I have a chance to see the message) or I hit a breakpoint and then I don’t see the message (because the window cannot be redrawn or resized when the program is paused). Also, the popup’s content does not appear on dashboards and cannot be copied to the clipboard.

It would be great if we changed the default to use the console by default.

blowekamp · August 3, 2018, 6:16pm

That change is proposed here:

http://review.source.kitware.com/#/c/23611/

Thanks for confirming we need to fix this