Discussion:
EurekaLog vs MadExcept vs others
(too old to reply)
Ivan Pastine
2005-05-02 23:16:17 UTC
Permalink
Exception loggers like EurekaLog or MadExcept seem like a very good
idea. They are both reasonably priced and my impression from newsgroups
is that they both have loyal followings. Does anybody have any thoughts
on which to get? Are there any other candidates I should be considering?

Thanks a lot,
Ivan
Glenn Alcott
2005-05-03 00:26:45 UTC
Permalink
I use EurekaLog and it's brilliant. The log files it produces are incredibly
useful in tracking down errors because they give a complete code trace. It's
especially useful to me as the developer of a commercial app with hundreds
of users because the users can just send us their log file and often it
helps in tracking down the exact cause of a problem, whereas without it I
wouldn't have a clue. I haven't used MadExcept so I can't say anything about
that.

Glenn
Post by Ivan Pastine
Exception loggers like EurekaLog or MadExcept seem like a very good
idea. They are both reasonably priced and my impression from newsgroups
is that they both have loyal followings. Does anybody have any thoughts
on which to get? Are there any other candidates I should be considering?
Thanks a lot,
Ivan
Kevin Powick
2005-05-03 00:53:44 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ivan Pastine
Exception loggers like EurekaLog or MadExcept seem like a very good
idea. They are both reasonably priced and my impression from
newsgroups is that they both have loyal followings.
Loyalists in both camps. I use madExcept and have no reason to switch.

I believe with the latest release, EL now has more features than
madExcept, mostly having to do with delivery options for error reports
and supporting files.

Casual observation of newsgroups suggest that madExcept has better
stack tracing, which IMO would be the most important feature of an
exception logger.

You probably can't go wrong with either. Support for madExcept has
been outstanding.
--
Kevin Powick
madshi (Mathias Rauen)
2005-05-03 11:12:41 UTC
Permalink
Post by Kevin Powick
I believe with the latest release, EL now has more
features than madExcept, mostly having to do with
delivery options for error reports and supporting
files.
madExcept 3.0 is already in the works for several
months... :-) Release date: Soon. I'm not ready
to talk about which new features will be contained,
though.
--
www.madshi.net
high quality low level Delphi components
extended exception handling
API hooking, DLL injection
Nick Rollas
2005-05-03 14:04:38 UTC
Permalink
CANT WAIT !!!

Nick
Post by madshi (Mathias Rauen)
Post by Kevin Powick
I believe with the latest release, EL now has more
features than madExcept, mostly having to do with
delivery options for error reports and supporting
files.
madExcept 3.0 is already in the works for several
months... :-) Release date: Soon. I'm not ready
to talk about which new features will be contained,
though.
--
www.madshi.net
high quality low level Delphi components
extended exception handling
API hooking, DLL injection
Jens Fudickar
2005-05-03 21:21:31 UTC
Permalink
Post by madshi (Mathias Rauen)
Post by Kevin Powick
I believe with the latest release, EL now has more
features than madExcept, mostly having to do with
delivery options for error reports and supporting
files.
madExcept 3.0 is already in the works for several
months... :-) Release date: Soon. I'm not ready
to talk about which new features will be contained,
though.
Can't say anything also, but the new features are ...

:-)
--
___________________________________________________________
Softwareentwicklung Jens Fudickar
Breslauer Straße 8 * 65760 Eschborn
Tel. +49-6196-496397 * Fax +49-6196-496398

Home of OraTool - http://www.oratool.de
Lauchlan M
2005-05-03 01:20:41 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ivan Pastine
is that they both have loyal followings. Does anybody have any thoughts
on which to get?
Either or both. Just _don't_ choose 'neither' and you'll be fine! ;)

I have and use both. Both are great products. You won't go wrong with
either. I don't recall a circumstance where one has been manifestly better
than the other in terms of trapping and interpeting unhandled exceptions.
There have been slight differences in the GUI and in the feature set, but as
soon as one introduces a feature, the other product seems to follow pretty
quickly.

So, either

(i) download trials for both and see which one you like using better or

(ii) just go for the cheapest and start using it.
Post by Ivan Pastine
Are there any other candidates I should be considering?
I believe there's a JEDI one as well.

Lauchlan M
OBones
2005-05-03 07:25:56 UTC
Permalink
Post by Lauchlan M
Post by Ivan Pastine
Are there any other candidates I should be considering?
I believe there's a JEDI one as well.
Yes, it's in the Jedi Code Library (JCL)
Peter Thörnqvist
2005-05-03 12:23:42 UTC
Permalink
Post by OBones
Post by Lauchlan M
I believe there's a JEDI one as well.
Yes, it's in the Jedi Code Library (JCL)
...and used by Borland in Delphi 8 and 2005 :)
--
Regards,

Peter Thornqvist (JVCL Developer)
http://jvcl.sourceforge.net
t***@inwind.it
2005-05-05 09:02:06 UTC
Permalink
Post by Lauchlan M
(ii) just go for the cheapest and start using it.
Don't always the cheap product is the best quality product, no? ;-)

See the customers quotes at http://www.eurekalog.com/comments.php

Or view an on-line flash demo at:
http://www.eurekalog.com/flashdemo.php

Now EurekaLog is ready to works in the high-level market, for customers
that required very high professional features, like automatical
HTTP-S/FTP sending, asymmetric debug-data encryption, attached files
compression, full Web error message customizable layout, XML log
support, and more (full features list at:
http://www.eurekalog.com/features.php).
Steve Troxell
2005-05-03 01:35:33 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ivan Pastine
Exception loggers like EurekaLog or MadExcept seem like a very good
idea. They are both reasonably priced and my impression from newsgroups
is that they both have loyal followings. Does anybody have any thoughts
on which to get? Are there any other candidates I should be considering?
Thanks a lot,
Ivan
I used madExcept for a couple of years and recently switched to
EurekaLog. They are probably at least 80% or more equivalent in
functionality, so you for the most part won't go wrong with either one.

I don't care for either product's default error dialog, although I think
EurekaLog's default dialog is more appealling. Both let you intercept
exceptions and put up your own error dialog.

Why did I switch? I was having a couple of problems with madExcept.
madExcept was failing to handle my custom dialog properly and was
showing it's own default dialog. This was happening about 30% of the
time. I know this because the error report emails I get are different
depending on whether the default dialog was shown or my own dialog was
shown. Obviously there are madExcept users who don't experience this
problem, so there was something unusual about my circumstances. But
whatever it was, madExcept wasn't performing consistently for me and I
either had to spend time tracing it or replace it.

I was also getting madExcept "unknown" errors for regular ADO database
errors. My customers were getting an ugly madExcept default "unknown"
error dialog when the problem was, for example, they provided the wrong
syntax for a SQL query. Instead of seeing the SQL syntax error they saw
"unknown". Again, something must have been peculiar about my
circumstances, but the bottom line was it wasn't working for me and,
again, I either had to spend time tracing it or replace it.

So far EurekaLog has handled my applications correctly. I had one
problem while evaluating the v5 beta where error handling wasn't working
properly and it was difficult to provide a reproducible example. The
EurekaLog developer remotely connected directly to my laptop from half
way around the world and worked within my project where the problem was
reproducible. I've never had service like that from any
vendor...especially for a problem that wasn't easily reproduced in a
sample project.

If you use Armadillo, you will want to be careful using either product.
Since these exception grabbers operate at a very low-level they could
trip up the anti-piracy traps Armadillo puts into place if you use
Armadillo's highest security settings.


Steve
madshi (Mathias Rauen)
2005-05-03 11:28:25 UTC
Permalink
Post by Steve Troxell
madExcept was failing to handle my custom dialog properly
and was showing it's own default dialog. This was happening
about 30% of the time.
The problem was that your dialog was using VCL and thus was
not thread safe. As a result madExcept was not able to show
it if the exception occurred in a secondary thread and if
at the same time the main thread didn't react to messages.

Since you don't have the same problem with EurekaLog, there
seems to be a bug left in madExcept, though. However, I've
got no complains about this from any other customers (yet?).

Anyway, all the best to you. If EurekaLog works better for
you, that's ok to me. It's just too sad we weren't able to
resolve the problem.
--
www.madshi.net
high quality low level Delphi components
extended exception handling
API hooking, DLL injection
G. Bradley MacDonald
2005-05-03 06:01:33 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ivan Pastine
Exception loggers like EurekaLog or MadExcept seem like a very good
idea. They are both reasonably priced and my impression from newsgroups
is that they both have loyal followings. Does anybody have any thoughts
on which to get? Are there any other candidates I should be considering?
Thanks a lot,
Ivan
Ivan,

All three are good products. I have used madExcept and Exception Magic.
I have not used Eurekalog as it does not support logging of handled
exceptions (the other two do). The author of Eurekalog has mentioned
that he is looking at putting this support in a future release.

I don't think you can go wrong with any of them.

Bradley
Lauchlan M
2005-05-03 06:49:26 UTC
Permalink
Post by G. Bradley MacDonald
All three are good products. I have used madExcept and Exception Magic.
I have not used Eurekalog as it does not support logging of handled
exceptions (the other two do).
Ah. I had to think about that. _Handled_ exceptions.

How would you make MadExcept log handled exceptions as well as unhandled
ones, and . . .

Why would you want to do it in MadExcept/EurekaLog?

Generally my strategy is to get ME or EL to capture the unhandled exceptions
(something I didn't anticipate) and email me a bug report, and to deal with
the handled exceptions internally in the app. So handled exceptions are
usually not 'problems' (although in some cases they certainly could be and
you'd want to log them, but perhaps in a different log file to the unhandled
exceptions log?).

Lauchlan M
Kevin Powick
2005-05-03 11:19:34 UTC
Permalink
Post by Lauchlan M
Generally my strategy is to get ME or EL to capture the unhandled
exceptions (something I didn't anticipate) and email me a bug report,
and to deal with the handled exceptions internally in the app. So
handled exceptions are usually not 'problems'
I agree. I think in the case of handled exceptions, one could easily
incorporate a logging mechanism into their product. Personally, I
wouldn't use ME or EL for something like that.
--
Kevin Powick
Steve Troxell
2005-05-03 14:39:51 UTC
Permalink
Post by Lauchlan M
How would you make MadExcept log handled exceptions as well as unhandled
ones, and . . .
Why would you want to do it in MadExcept/EurekaLog?
I'm a little unclear on that one myself.

Steve
Matthew Jones
2005-05-03 19:40:00 UTC
Permalink
The benefit of trapping handle exceptions is that you can cope with a
problem, while still getting the full details. For example, I wrote a spam
filter that needs to "fail safe", but if it failed at all I needed to know
about it. So the filter would have a try/except around the filter, and if
something happened it would be logged. But the code could then safely set
the filter termination conditions appropriate to the situation.

Likewise I've also been doing this in a DLL that does card payments - it
has to tell the calling app the right response, and not pass back an
exception, but I do want to know the details.

I couldn't work with an exception handler that couldn't do this!

/Matthew Jones/
G. Bradley MacDonald
2005-05-03 16:40:50 UTC
Permalink
In article <***@newsgroups.borland.com>, ***@Hotmail.com
says...
Post by Lauchlan M
Post by G. Bradley MacDonald
All three are good products. I have used madExcept and Exception Magic.
I have not used Eurekalog as it does not support logging of handled
exceptions (the other two do).
Ah. I had to think about that. _Handled_ exceptions.
How would you make MadExcept log handled exceptions as well as unhandled
ones, and . . .
Lauchlan - I would be happend to send you a unit I use to manage this -
but basically it is as follows

To Start logging Handled Exceptions
RegisterHiddenExceptionHandler
(TAExceptionHanlder.MadException_HiddenExceptionHandler, False);

To Stop logging Handled Exceptions
UnRegisterHiddenExceptionHandler
(TAExceptionHanlder.MadException_HiddenExceptionHandler);

then in the above handler you need the following line - where I create
the Header and AddtionalInfo for the hanndled exceptions.

AutoSaveBugReport(FHeader + AdditionalInfo + bugReport + #10#13 + #10#
13 + TASystemController.GenerateSystemInfoText);


Let me know - I would be happy to provide you with the code from the
unit I took the above snippets from!
Post by Lauchlan M
Why would you want to do it in MadExcept/EurekaLog?
Generally my strategy is to get ME or EL to capture the unhandled exceptions
(something I didn't anticipate) and email me a bug report, and to deal with
the handled exceptions internally in the app. So handled exceptions are
usually not 'problems' (although in some cases they certainly could be and
you'd want to log them, but perhaps in a different log file to the unhandled
exceptions log?).
It has been my experience that handled exceptions can indicate a problem
just as Unhandled ones - especially when dealing with other peoples code
<g> such as components, etc.

Basically because I can get the line numbers from the Exception Handling
components - I find it to be an incrediably useful remote problem
solving tools (as from the sounds of things - so do you). However, I
have encountered issues where some exceptions have not been handled
properly and have caused issues further down/up the stack.

For example: Routine A calls Routine B. Routine B has an exception
that is trapped in a generic Try..Except..End block. However, perhaps
that routine needs to set a value or return a value and it is not then
doing so properly (but only under some circumstances). Routine A then
gets the value and then raises and exception (which is not handled).
Without the ability to log "Handled" exceptions my report would only
point me to routine A - and not show me right where in Routine B the
"Real" problem occurred.

However, it is important to be to turn it off/on. If it was on all the
time it would slow things down and create huge log files <g>. So - with
both Exception Magic and madExcept - you can turn it on/off with a
simple call. In my case I have a check box in the application
preferences form that allows the user to do this. This capability has
saved me countless hours trying to troubleshoot problems on remote
customer machines.

I originally came across this feature in ExceptionMagic - then I
mentioned it to the author of MadExcept - who added it. I find it to be
very useful.

As I said above - if you want my controlling class to look at how you
turn on-off this feature in madExcept - let me know and I will make it
available.

Bradley
Post by Lauchlan M
Lauchlan M
Ivan Pastine
2005-05-03 15:41:09 UTC
Permalink
Thanks everybody. The upshot seems to be that something like this is a
big help and the exact choice isn't as important as the choice to use or
not use them. Also I should check out the jedi version and exception
magic (although I'm having trouble tracking it down -- maybe not
supported anymore).

Thanks again for your help,
Ivan
Ivan Pastine
2005-05-03 16:17:24 UTC
Permalink
Yep, there it is. Thanks, Ivan
Steve Troxell
2005-05-03 16:14:49 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ivan Pastine
Thanks everybody. The upshot seems to be that something like this is a
big help and the exact choice isn't as important as the choice to use or
not use them. Also I should check out the jedi version and exception
magic (although I'm having trouble tracking it down -- maybe not
supported anymore).
Thanks again for your help,
Ivan
It's called Exceptional Magic.

http://www.dimusware.com/products/excmagic/index.html

Steve
Pierre Demers
2005-05-03 17:56:40 UTC
Permalink
I stongly
That french tongue again, I meant strongly :)

Pierre
Pierre Demers
2005-05-03 17:53:41 UTC
Permalink
Hello Ivan,

Don't even bother to look at Exception Magic, this product has been dead for
a long time. MadExcept and EurekaLog are the best there is. Personnaly I
chose EurekaLog after using Exception Magic for a couple of years and I
never regret it. Product is very very good and the support also. I stongly
recommand it.

Pierre
t***@inwind.it
2005-05-05 09:03:47 UTC
Permalink
Thanks Pierre, I think it is true! ;-)

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