Reply To: Log, Alert and Affirm in OSVVM

[Jim Lewis]

> Q2. Why does one need “Alert” functions when “Affirm” functions also exists?
Alert is for parameter checks – like is max >= min. These are properties that if violated, the design (or test case) is broken.

Affirm is for self checking. Each check is counted. A test quality is a function of the number of checks and we report that.

> Q3. Since “Affirm” functions combines Log and Alert, …
AffirmIf uses “alert ERROR” for test failures and “log PASSED” for test passed.

> Q1. For log messages, what is the idea behind the different levels of log?
ALWAYS – Always prints. Cannot be disabled by SetLogEnable.
INFO – Transaction level details of what a VC is doing
DEBUG – Detailed operational level of what a VC is doing for extended debug
FINAL – Messages that only need to be printed to collect test artifacts, but do not need to be printed normally. Intended for methodologies like DO-254.
PASSED – Only intended to be used by AffirmIf when a check passes.