Internal data structures

• char *name - name of the instance. Used to print message prefix.
• ostrstream *msg - character stream used to hold the message string to be printed.
• ostream *msgDest - destination stream, where the message will be printed. This could be the console (cout), or also a file.
• int On - whether the object should print out its messages.
• int needNewline - before the message is actually printed, sometimes a newline must be printed, and sometimes not. This flag tells whether to print a newline. Once a message is printed, this flag is cleared. The member function need_newline may be used to set this flag.
• int outputLevel - the current output message level of the instance. This level is compared with the level of the message currently being requested to be printed; if the level of the message is less than or equal to the current message level of the Inform object, then the message is printed, otherwise it is just ignored.
• int msgLevel - the current output level of the message that is to be printed. This may be changed anytime during the construction of the message; the level at the time when the request to print the message is made is the one used.