[+], [-], [i]... Coding Conventions

Question

I have spent time coding a nice console App for windows users. It is 'console-based' so I wanted to make sure it looks professional when displaying messages to the user. I have seen many exploit code or linux codes displaying console information in this manner:

[+] Found 5 Wireless Networks!
[+] Now Commencing Attack...
[-] Couldn't load the dictionary file
....
[i] Your wifi has weak security

This is just an example. I wanted to know if there's a convention in using this [+] etc symbols while displaying messages or taking input in console applications.

I hope this is not silly, I just want my code to look professional coz I have worked hard writing the code.

Answer 1

Not sure if it is a convention as such. But in the example above :

• [+] seems to be for expected progress indicator logs,

• [-] for error logs,

• [i] for informative logs.

Take a look at this answer for detailed description of the standard log-levels. You may want to map additional descriptive characters to each log-level as was done in the above example..

Answer 2

I think this (or other suitable replacement characters) will not (or at least should not) greatly influence how people perceive the level of professionalism of your code.