ifndef RTERROR_H
  define RTERROR_H
  
  include <iostream>
  include <string>
  
  class RtError
  {
  public:
    //! Defined RtError types.
    enum Type {
      WARNING,           /*!< A non-critical error. */
      DEBUG_WARNING,     /*!< A non-critical error which might be useful for debugging. */
      UNSPECIFIED,       /*!< The default, unspecified error type. */
      NO_DEVICES_FOUND,  /*!< No devices found on system. */
      INVALID_DEVICE,    /*!< An invalid device ID was specified. */
      INVALID_STREAM,    /*!< An invalid stream ID was specified. */
      MEMORY_ERROR,      /*!< An error occured during memory allocation. */
      INVALID_PARAMETER, /*!< An invalid parameter was specified to a function. */
      DRIVER_ERROR,      /*!< A system driver error occured. */
      SYSTEM_ERROR,      /*!< A system error occured. */
      THREAD_ERROR       /*!< A thread error occured. */
    };
  
  protected:
    std::string message_;
    Type type_;
  
  public:
    //! The constructor.
    RtError(const std::string& message, Type type = RtError::UNSPECIFIED) : message_(message), type_(type) {}
  
    //! The destructor.
    virtual ~RtError(void) {};
  
    //! Prints thrown error message to stderr.
    virtual void printMessage(void) { std::cerr << '\n' << message_ << "\n\n"; }
  
    //! Returns the thrown error message type.
    virtual const Type& getType(void) { return type_; }
  
    //! Returns the thrown error message string.
    virtual const std::string& getMessage(void) { return message_; }
  
    //! Returns the thrown error message as a C string.
    virtual const char *getMessageString(void) { return message_.c_str(); }
  };
  
  endif