Bring init-exe main.zig in line with current style guidelines

[ghost]

• Removes anyerror
• Uses proper output rather than logging

Sorry for the noise, but this was really bugging me.

[marler8997]

What's the reasoning you use to determine that going to stdout is proper here?

[ghost]

It could go either way, sure. But Hello World in the docs uses stdout, so I think our stance is clear.

…

On Wed, Jan 26, 2022, at 3:55 PM, Jonathan Marler wrote: What's the reasoning you use to determine that going to stdout is proper here? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#10697 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AODFYYBKLZM2NORF4ULSQCLUX55EJANCNFSM5M2B3BRQ>. Triage notifications on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS <https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1477376905?ct=notification-email&mt=8&pt=524675> or Android <https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.android&referrer=utm_campaign%3Dnotification-email%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Dgithub>. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[ghost]

Whoops, the build is failing because the test case expects the output on stderr 😐 Then there seems to be an unrelated error.
None of the build logs are very helpful in finding the failed test; anyone know which one it is?

[nektro]

https://github.com/ziglang/zig/blob/master/test/cli.zig#L94-L98

[squeek502]

Context for std.log being used in init-exe:

• remove the "scope" parameter from std.log functions; introduce "std.log.scoped" functions #5943 (comment)
• Change std.debug.warn to std.debug.print in init-exe template. #5941 (comment)

[nektro]

this change would bring it into sync with the language reference https://ziglang.org/documentation/master/#Hello-World

[ghost]

I really do not agree with past ifreund on this matter. What we mean to do in this program is print a message, not log program behaviour. If we use the logging solution for the printing case, we give the impression that this is the correct way to do printing, which it is not.
Also, yes, it is strange that the docs don't match the template.
Oh, yeah, and I don't remember which of the links says this but the current impl won't print anything outside debug mode. Not a very robust program for a first impression.

[ghost]

Looks like the only failed check was a timeout and not anything in the code itself. So it seems to all be fine.

[andrewrk]

Which one are we doing?

1. Hello world as defined to be the simplest program that prints a string to stdout.
2. Hello world as defined to be simplest program that debug prints, like you would do if you are troubleshooting something?

For (2) I could see it being a call to std.debug.print or std.log. But it looks like what you're trying to do is move this closer to (1), in which case this would be the way to do it:

Suggested change

	conststdout=std.io.getStdOut().writer();
	trystdout.print("All your codebase are belong to us.\n", .{});
	trystd.io.getStdOut().writeAll("All your codebase are belong to us.\n");

I think that's not actually helpful though, because it would lead to people using this pattern instead of std.debug.print or std.log.

I think status quo is actually better.

[ghost]

I was doing
3. Hello world as defined to be the most correct (in terms of code style) program that prints a string to stdout.

The reasoning for this is, clearly what we're doing here is printing a message, no matter what mechanism we use; therefore what we do here will be taken as the correct way to print a message in Zig. We need to set a good example.

Here's why I say that status quo is not a good example:

• It prints to stderr rather than stdout, in contrast to literally every other Hello World in existence.
• It is not tolerant to errors, so misses prime advertising space for a headline feature of Zig.
• It wraps the message in "info: "..'\n', which is not even what we want when doing a Hello World.
• It does not run outside debug mode, so is not robust.

We're not playing code golf here; we're demonstrating, maybe for one of the first times to some people, an example of how to write Zig. We can be a bit more verbose for the sake of clarity, and I say we should.

[andrewrk]

Most correct hello world is using writeAll, as suggested above. Your (3) is my (1). We are talking about the same thing.

zig init-exe is not intended to be "hello world" - it is intended to be a template to get you going. That's why it also includes unit tests. I think teaching people how to use std.log is more appropriate than teaching how to write to stdout, which is actually a rare use case.

I think it should be improved even further and set someone up a GeneralPurposeAllocator as well as an arena with the lifetime of the process, with comments explaining when someone might use one or the other.

Also argument parsing, and maybe even a buffered writer to write something to a file. Basically a "getting started" kit.

This PR is not the direction I see this going.