Setting up diagnostic error messages in large Mathematica projects

Question

Whenever I create a large Mathematica project I run into this problem: Preventing avalanche of runtime errors in Mathematica, i.e., Mathematica\'s error message are opaque,

Answer 1

A suggestion for extracting stack, maybe something that relies on Trace?

An example of using Trace below, from Chris Chiasson. This code saves evaluation tree of 1 + Sin[x + y] + Tan[x + y] into ~/temp/msgStream.m

Developer`ClearCache[];
SetAttributes[recordSteps, HoldAll];
recordSteps[expr_] :=

  Block[{$Output = List@OpenWrite["~/temp/msgStream.m"]}, 
   TracePrint[Unevaluated[expr], _?(FreeQ[#, Off] &), 
    TraceInternal -> True];
   Close /@ $Output;
   Thread[
    Union@Cases[
      ReadList["~/temp/msgStream.m", HoldComplete[Expression]], 
      symb_Symbol /; 
        AtomQ@Unevaluated@symb && 
         Context@Unevaluated@symb === "System`" :> 
       HoldComplete@symb, {0, Infinity}, Heads -> True], 
    HoldComplete]
   ];
recordSteps[1 + Tan[x + y] + Sin[x + y]]

To answer Samsdram's question, the code below (also from Chris) gives evaluation tree of a Mathematica expression. Here is the post from MathGroup with source code and examples.

(Attributes@# = {HoldAllComplete}) & /@ {traceToTreeAux, toVertex, 
  HoldFormComplete, getAtoms, getAtomsAux}
MakeBoxes[HoldFormComplete[args___], form_] := 
 MakeBoxes[HoldForm[args], form]
edge[{head1_, pos1_, xpr1_}, {head2_, pos2_, xpr2_}] := 
 Quiet[Rule[{head1, vertexNumberFunction@pos1, xpr1}, {head2, 
    vertexNumberFunction@pos2, xpr2}], {Rule::"rhs"}]
getAtomsAux[atom_ /; AtomQ@Unevaluated@atom] := 
 Sow[HoldFormComplete@atom, getAtomsAux]
getAtomsAux[xpr_] := Map[getAtomsAux, Unevaluated@xpr, Heads -> True]
getAtoms[xpr_] := Flatten@Reap[getAtomsAux@xpr][[2]]
toVertex[traceToTreeAux[HoldForm[heldXpr_], pos_]] := toVertex[heldXpr]
toVertex[traceToTreeAux[HoldForm[heldXprs___], pos_]] := 
 toVertex@traceToTreeAux[Sequence[], pos]
(*this code is strong enough to not need the ToString commands,but \
some of the resulting graph vertices give trouble to the graphing \
routines*)
toVertex[
  traceToTreeAux[xpr_, pos_]] := {ToString[
   Short@Extract[Unevaluated@xpr, 0, HoldFormComplete], StandardForm],
   pos, ToString[Short@First@originalTraceExtract@{pos}, StandardForm]}
traceToTreeAux[xpr_ /; AtomQ@Unevaluated@xpr, ___] := Sequence[]
traceToTreeAux[_HoldForm, ___] := Sequence[]
traceToTreeAux[xpr_, pos_] := 
 With[{lhs = toVertex@traceToTreeAux[xpr, pos], 
   args = HoldComplete @@ Unevaluated@xpr}, 
  Identity[Sequence][
   ReleaseHold[
    Function[Null, edge[lhs, toVertex@#], HoldAllComplete] /@ args], 
   ReleaseHold@args]]
traceToTree[xpr_] := 
 Block[{vertexNumber = -1, vertexNumberFunction, 
   originalTraceExtract}, 
  vertexNumberFunction[arg_] := 
   vertexNumberFunction[arg] = ++vertexNumber; 
  originalTraceExtract[pos_] := 
   Extract[Unevaluated@xpr, pos, HoldFormComplete]; {MapIndexed[
    traceToTreeAux, Unevaluated@xpr, {0, Infinity}]}]
TraceTreeFormPlot[trace_, opts___] := 
  Block[{$traceExpressionToTree = True}, 
   Through@{Unprotect, Update}@SparseArray`ExpressionToTree; 
   SparseArray`ExpressionToTree[trace, Infinity] = traceToTree@trace; 
   With[{result = ToExpression@ToBoxes@TreeForm[trace, opts]}, 
    Through@{Unprotect, Update}@SparseArray`ExpressionToTree; 
    SparseArray`ExpressionToTree[trace, Infinity] =.; 
    Through@{Update, Protect, Update}@SparseArray`ExpressionToTree; 
    result]];

TraceTreeFormPlot[Trace[Tan[x] + Sin[x] - 2*3 - 55]]