Dear Members of JSR47:
I'm working in a big group of Java developers. Previously the lack of
logging solution forced us to develop a custom logging API for our
internal needs. Our logging framework borrowed some ideas from
logging
facilities from old Borland's C++, there were some of the features
that
we later found in log4j, and some our own. Nevertheless, close
examination of the Log4J made us migrate to it, and we never
regretted.
The framework is easy to use, provides very good set of features, and
fast.
I strongly support arguments of the Log4J's founder at
experience shows that the long list of log levels introduces only
confusion, especially when working in a group . For example, how do
you
define the difference between FINE, FINER and FINEST, for a new
programmer in your project?
As you know Log4J is widely used. It is a part of many open source
and
commercial projects. What would you suggest for all the people
working
on these projects, assuming the current discrepancies between the new
standard suggested in JSR47 and existing de-facto standard in
Log4J?
Personally I think that introducing Log4J as logging API of new JDK
will
be beneficial for all the Java community. This would save time for
those
developers who otherwise would have to migrate their code, and would
have positive impact on the quality of Java projects. E.g. in a
medium-to-big project that would use several solutions from different
vendors or open source projects, developers we may end up having two
different logging APIs to work with in the same project (!).
Adopting Log4J as the standard logging API would show that Sun does
care
about the quality of the Java platform and its APIs, and that it does
care about developers who selected this platform and support it.
I personally know that throwing own work away is difficult. But don't
you think that it is TOO LATE to introduce a NEW logging API, when
there's EXISTING one, which is widely adopted and proved itself very
well?
Thank you for your time reading this.
Regards
Alexander Evsukov