error message formatting

[Joe Buck]

> > 	Unfortunately, this is mainly due to the structure of the STL.  Because
> > it is so template based, you're going to get those long lines.  I think the SGI
> 
> Yes, but, as I said, "This is OUTRAGEOUS".

The problem is partly fixable, and there have been several proposals.

> I am stating what I, as the USER, wants to see. (The USER rules, or should!)

The user does not rule egcs unless the user is paying someone to write the
code.  You don't rule because you aren't doing the work and you aren't
paying others to do the work.  Just the same, you'll probably see some
effort to deal with this problem, eventually.

> As templates get more common, something must be done about hiding their
> names. I use them fairly regularly now. I have nested templates up to 3 levels
> (e.g., map <string<char>, <vector <pair <int, float> > >)
> 
> if I have typefed that to my_map, that's what I want to see in my error
> messages. 

This sometimes works, but sometimes the only way to show the user the
problem is to expose the real definition (because the calling code
declared one typedef but the called code declared another typedef and
they are both the same).

Still, I think this is a promising area.  But we'll need volunteers to
code up some alternatives.