Hi
I'm writing as many other concerned developers have to provide input
into the new logging API coming in JDK 1.4. I would like to see the
JSR/API changed to include more features that are present in
Log4J.
The company I presently work for just evaluated the new 1.4 beta and
Log4J and came to many of the same conclusions as the article by Ceki
don't want to re-iterate them here, I would encourage the panel to
review the article.
I myself was involved in creating a custom logging solution for a
previous employer about 2 years ago and we created a logging API that
ended up closely resembling what IBM did in Log4J. My point is that 2
different companies with different developers (except for myself) and
different logging requirements came to similar solutions where the JSR
deviates from this "norm". For example, the logging levels we
eventually implemented were almost identical to the ones IBM came up
with in Log4J. In practice, we found that levels like fine, finer,
finest are too ambibuous. They tended to confuse the developers and
as
a result, caused unnecessary logging overhead. The developers were
unclear about just what level to use. While it can be argued that the
user (the company/developers) of the API can define these, this really
doesn't solve the problem unless you work in an environment with 5
developers and no turn-over.
Please consider following the Log4J model and include more of its
features. I don't agree with others that have written in saying to
include the whole of Log4J in the release as I don't know it inside and
out but I do think that many of it's features should be added and that
logging interfaces / pluggable(like the XML parsers) loggers are
necessary.
Thank you
Brian Paulsen
javadeveloper@mysun.com