need more detailed debug `logging needed

[timoteo]

I am having a very difficult time knowing what setting or key or key combination due to accident or misunderstanding changing the way things work. I like this tool and use it all the time, but I often get frustrated that I have somehow changed some setting that affects the way it works and I don't know when or how I did so.

Today, I clicked on the dropdown next to the search data entry field on the toolbar, wanting to change the way I search because I wasn't finding what I wanted in my folder. I have run across other cases like this where I somehow changed something but not intentionally. This leaves me wondering what the ... did I do and how do I undo it/fix it? 

In this "search" case, I turned on DEBUG logging, hoping to see what sort of search it was doing. I hoped that the code would log events indicating the exact parameters for the search, but it did not.

Would it be possible for you to add more logging for settings? If there's one or several common functions or methods for changing settings, you could add debug-level logging for settings changes there. Then when someone like me has problems figuring out what happened to their settings, they can turn on debug logging to get more info.

[Mario]

In this "search" case, I turned on DEBUG logging, hoping to see what sort of search it was doing.

Tip: If you point the mouse cursor at the button, IMatch shows you which search options are enabled.
See Searching

Under normal conditions, users don't come into contact with the log file. The log file exists to analyze problems, and that means it's mostly for me. I ask users to provide a log file when they run into specific problems, for deeper analysis.

IMatch does not log changes the user does to the log file. Users changing settings accidentally happens, but rarely.
IMatch has hundreds of settings and I don't see a reason to log them to the log file or to track every change to a setting the user makes and log it. This would be a massive effort.

Some users use IMatch Notepad to record changes they made to settings when they try something out.
A before/after screen shot with <Alt>+<Print> or <Windows>+<Print> of a dialog box can be helpful to restore previous settings when you make experiments with settings.