how to hide debugging output in Mathematica

Question

I want hide all outputs created by Print command from user's function defined in module .m

More precisely the problem is following: I have a module that solves some specific task (It's not necessary to know the task for understanding the question). I use Print command inside the module to output process of evaluation. It's useful for debugging but not for using (all inner output must be hidden when user calls a function declared in the module). So, in every stable version of the module I have to put comments (* *) and delete them for gebugging. I suppose that this way is uncivilized, and Mathematica should have a regular way to hide inner outputs.

For example, we have 3 files in the same directory. Can you suggest me a simple way how to hide all outputs by default and print all outputs in debugging mode?

modul.m:

f[x_]:=Module[{y}, y=Cos[x]*Sin[x];
Print["modul.m: y=",y];
Return[y]];

debugging.nb:

SetDirectory[NotebookDirectory[]];
<< modul.m;
x=10;
f[x] (* print all inner output generated while f is evaluating*)
x=20;
f[x](* print all inner output generated while f is evaluating*)

application.nb:

<< modul.m
y=f[10]+f[20];
(* Hide all outputs of f during evaluation. Command ; doesn't work for this issue. *) 

Answer 1

The short answer to this is that a simple Print[] is not a good way to debug a large package. It is not possible to turn it off (in a robust way) only for your package, but not in other places (it can be disabled globally, the simplest way being Print; Unprotect[Print]; Print = Null &, but this will severely annoy your users)

For much better ways to emit debug messages, and turn them off, see here:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8698754/message-generation-in-mathematica

I'll summarize Brett Champion and my own answers from there, as personally (and subjectively) I consider those the best solutions, but please read the full thread there.

---

Brett Champion's answer:

Use a custom symbol for debug messages(just like your package functions, you may want to put it in a separate context to avoid collisions), like this:

...
debugPrint[expr]
...

Then define a PrintDebug function like this:

Attributes[PrintDebug]={HoldAll}

PrintDebug[expr_] := Block[{debugPrint = Print}, expr]

Any code wrapped in PrintDebug will print messages. If there's no PrintDebug wrapper, message printing is disabled.

MyFunction[1,2,3] // PrintDebug

Alternately you may set a value to debugPrint globally to enable message printing for everything or just do $Pre = PrintDebug.

---

My answer:

We can use the built-in Message functionality for debugging too:

debugPrint::msg = "Debug message: `1`";    
debugPrint[msg_] := Message[debugPrint::msg, msg]

Use the function like this:

debugPrint["hello"]

Turn off or on messages like this:

Off[debugPrint::msg]

On[debugPrint::msg]