Debug vex print to console why is this confusing?

[bonassus]

I'm learning Houdini. And I'm getting my feet wet with vex. The problem I'm having is I don't understand how to get good feedback on the code I'm writing. In previous scripting environments I have worked with, the good ones have an easy way to print messages for debugging. With Houdini and vex this seems to be mysterious. I can't find how to open the console. I have made the console appear in vops using the print node and ticking the open text to console check box. But I haven't been able to get any useful feed back from vex. 

The documentaion has a print function which says it prints to the console. I can't make this work. I guess I don't understand when the code is compiled or run. for instance in a attribwrangle if I put the following code:

string a = "hello";

print("label", a);

nothing happens. I tried playing the timeline. not sure how to make this work.

I have also tried:
string a = "hello";

printf("%s\n", a); 

 

I'm obviously confused here and would appreciate a point in the right direction on how to make vex print messages to the console. 

 

thanks a lot. 

Edited January 6, 2017 by bonassus

[bonsak]

If you're on osx you'll have to start Houdini from the commandline in order to see "printf" output. On windows it should pop up on "printf()"

-b

[bonassus]

Thanks Bonsak,

I'm on windows.

I got the console to appear. I opened the code editor with alt E and then clicked the apply button to make it appear. Simple. 

thanks again.