THotLog summary and licence

v 3.3 (2019-02) Rolf Wetjen (rolf.wetjen@mail.de)

CheckLogFiles moved to THotLogWriter.Execute
THotLogWriter.Execute: F is TFileStreamUTF8
References to unit RWUtils removed
Additional index FSaveIndex for safe filenames in THLFileDef
ddname can be used to set a prefix for safe filenames
Filename in this case: ddname-yyyymmddd-hhnnss-FSafeIndex
SafeGdgMax now working
UseFileSizeLimit, FUseSizeLimit removed. Set LogFileMaxSize > 0 instead.
References to CodeSiteLogging removed

v 3.2.1 (2017-07) Rolf Wetjen (rolf.wetjen@mail.de)

Bug fixing

v 3.2 (2017-01) Rolf Wetjen (rolf.wetjen@mail.de)

FormatDateTime(..,Now) replaced with DateTimeToStr
THotLogWriter CreateFile & OpenFile with flag FILE_FLAG_WRITE_THROUGH

v 3.1 (2016-05) Rolf Wetjen (rolf.wetjen@mail.de)

No need to call THotLog.StartLogging. THotLog.Add... will do this.
New property THotLog.Started
Bug fixing

v 3.0 (2016-05) Rolf Wetjen (rolf.wetjen@mail.de)

Support for Delphi XE7 and Lazarus 3.0
Logfile is UTF8 encoded
Heap monitoring changed (GetMemoryManagerState (Delphi) / GetFPCHeapStatus (Lazarus)
Ram monitoring changed (GlobalMemoryStatusEx)
Unicode string support for Delphi
UTF8 string support for Lazarus
Bug fixing and some redesign

The v 2.0 of HotLog gives you the possibility to define a maximum size for the log file. Once this maximum is reached, HotLog's instance will close it's file, and open a new one. This "most wanted feature" has been added by Robert Becker. Many thanks go to him.
In order to find more about this new feature, please go to the Log file definition page.

v 2.1 is an extention of v 2.0 by Femi Fadayomi, adding the support for Delphi 5 (See readme.txt file for D5 install).

v 2.2, by Luis Gonzalo Constantini Von Rickel, enhances the management of the memo used for the visual feedback, and fixes a possible AV when creating the log file.

HotLog.pas is a Delphi unit which groups object definitions, routines, aso in order to fully manage a log file for you.
It has been written with Delphi 6 (PE).

Licence
This unit is freeware, but under copyrights that remain mine for my parts of the code, and original writers for their parts of the code. This is mainly the case about "variant open array parameters" copying routines, that come from Rudy Velthuis' pages on the web at http://rvelthuis.bei.t-online.de/index.htm.
This unit can be freely used in any application, freeware, shareware or commercial. However, I would apreciate you sending me an email if you decide to use it. Of course, you use it under your own and single responsability. Neither me, nor contributors could be held responsible for any problem resulting from the use of this unit. ;-)
It can also be freely distributed, provided all this licence remain within it unchanged, and that the readme.txt and this help file are distributed with it too.

Latest version, bug corrections, aso are available at http://mapage.noos.fr/qnno/pages/delphi_fr.htm

Code highlighting in the present document often made with Chami's online code highlighter at http://www.chami.com/colorizer/

Multithreaded, object oriented, buffered safe. The log file will be correctly written to disk, even if your application crashes. The logging/parsing/formating and optionnal visual feedback work don't consume your main thread's time. You can use as many instances of THotLog as you want.
Management of the log file itself
- Path, name, extention (including [optional] generation (".001", ".002", ...) based ones)
- Access (openning, writting, closing) and dealing with older version(s) when generations are used)
- Ability to close the log file when it reaches a certain size limit, then open a new one.
- Any default value / behaviour can be easily changed
Fully "automated": The logging object instance is created at your application start-up, you can use it directly if you decide to change none of the default settings. Similarly, everything is freed when needed. However, any setting can be changed either before beginning to logg, and/or (for some of them) during run-time.
Provides means of easily retrieving informations about the environment your user is actually working with, in order to facilitate debugging, in case of need. These informations include numbers and facts about the operating system, the memory, the system's timing accuracy, and much more
Provides easy-to-use strings formating capabilities, to have your logs presented cleanly
Ability to output detailed informations in case of exceptions occuring, includding the ability to deal with "variant open array parameter" (thanks Rudy V.): All you have to do is to give the exceptions logging methodes some datas like they are (for example the list of the parameters received by the function), without wondering whether they are integers or strings, valid pointers, uninitialized or dangling ones, aso. The log object instance will mind his own business with all that stuff
Can be assigned a memo, in order to provide your user visual feedback
Provides code timing features too, with a resolution going from seconds to nanoseconds, and from ticks to cycles depending on your user's computer, and the timer you choose
Many options are available, to allow you to change HotLog's default behaviour
More, and more, ...

Many thanks go to all the people who encouraged me, and more particularly to those who contibuted to HotLog evolution:

Femi Fadayomi, who did add Delphi 5 support.
Robert Becker (rbecker@compuserve.com), who brought to us, hLog users, what was certainly the "most wanted" feature : HotLog can now be limited in size, and automatically opens a new file when a certain size limit isreached.
Guillaume Cornu, for fixing the GetRegValue() function
Oleg Danilov, who added the SetMemoLimit() procedure
Luis Gonzalo Constantini Von Rickel, who did a great fix in the FileCreate() function, and worked a lot on the visual feedback part
Vittorio Loschi, who corrected the buggy SetFileName() procedure
"Sergueï" who fixed a sometimes incorrect initialization
Jean-Philippe R. who tracked and fixed a bug occuring in "append" mode

Thank you to all of you!