Question

Today im writing the logging to a text file log:

/*----------------------------------------------------------------
 * Module Name  : Logger
 * Description  : A logger
 * Author       : Danny
 * Date         : 10/02/2010
 * Revision     : 1.00
 * --------------------------------------------------------------*/


using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Threading;
/*
 *  Introduction :
 * 
 *  This module is a logger. any module can use this 
 *  module to log its actions.
 * 
 * 
 * */

        /*----------------------------------------
         *   P R I V A T E    D E F I N I T I O N S 
         * ---------------------------------------*/


namespace DannyGeneral
{
    class Logger
    {
        /*----------------------------------------
         *   P R I V A T E     C O N S T A N T S 
         * ---------------------------------------*/
        static string log_file_name = @"\logger.txt";
        static string full_path_log_file_name;
        static string path_log;
        static Mutex mut;
        /*----------------------------------------
         *   P R I V A T E     V A R I A B L E S 
         * ---------------------------------------*/

        /*---------------------------------
         *   P U B L I C   M E T H O D S 
         * -------------------------------*/

        /*----------------------------------------------------------
         * Function     : Logger
         * Description  : static Constructor
         * Parameters   : none
         * Return       : none
         * --------------------------------------------------------*/
        static Logger()
        {
            mut = new Mutex();
            path_log = Path.GetDirectoryName(Application.LocalUserAppDataPath)+ @"\log";
            if (!Directory.Exists(path_log))
            {
                Directory.CreateDirectory(path_log);
            }
            full_path_log_file_name = path_log + log_file_name;
        }

        /*----------------------------------------------------------
         * Function     : Write
         * Description  : writes a string to the log file
         *                This functions will add time and date and
         *                end of line chars to the string written to
         *                the file.
         * Parameters   : string to write to the file.
         * Return       : none
         * --------------------------------------------------------*/
        public static void Write(string str)
        {
            if (mut.WaitOne() == false)
            {
                return;
            }
            else
            {

                using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(full_path_log_file_name, true))
                {
                    sw.Write(DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString() + "--" + DateTime.Now.ToShortTimeString() + " ==> " + str);
                    sw.WriteLine();
                    sw.Close();
                }
            }
            mut.ReleaseMutex();
        }
        public static void exist()
        {
            if (!File.Exists(path_log + log_file_name))
            {
                StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(path_log + log_file_name);
                sw.Write(DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString()+"--"+DateTime.Now.ToShortTimeString()+" ==> "+"First Time The Log File Was Created"+Environment.NewLine);
                sw.WriteLine();
                sw.Close();
            }
        }
        public static void newEmptyLine()
        {
            StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(path_log + log_file_name,true);
            sw.WriteLine();
            sw.Close();
        }

        public static string LoggerPath()
        {
            string path = path_log + log_file_name;
            return path;
        }

        /*---------------------------------
         *   P R I V A T E    M E T H O D S 
         * -------------------------------*/

    }



}

Instead to write it to a simple text file and viewing the file while the program is running using Process and notepad.exe i thought maybe there is another way to view the log file but with colors inside ? Something like richTextBox so i can paint in the file each line in another color.

And that it will be opened fast like it does now with notepad.

Answer 1

You can’t have a text file “with colors”. Plain text does not have formatting.

You will need to write as a format that does have formatting – RTF or HTML for example will work.

You may be able to customize your logs and a programming editor (notepad++ for example) to do some syntax highlighting for you.