To the JSR 47 Expert Group
I would like to support most of the points made by Ceki in his
review of the proposed Merlin logging API at
and I would urge the committee to reconsider.
In particular:
o Logging API should be designed so that configuration order does
not matter.
o Bogus levels
o Limited Functionality - this could be addressed using optional
pluggable extensions in javax.logging, some of which could be
supplied with J2EE, such as JMS and XML logging support. Better
pluggability should be provided.
o Error Handling
On Parents and Children, I have not investigated the inheritance
structure as described, however I would emphasis the need for
extensibility in such a fundamental API, with respect to function,
internationalisation, customisation and so forth.
On the basis of my own brief investigation:
o Pluggability does not seem to be well addressed. It seems
symptomatic that there is only one interface defined in the API,
and no distinction between User and Service Provider classes. I
view pluggability as fundamental.
o It appears that you can't have multiple (named) instances of
handlers such as FileHandler and SocketHandler with different
physical destinations.
I would emphasise the need for flexible configuration, which goes
hand in hand with pluggability. Different frameworks, such as third
party APIs, will have their own logging requirements and it should
be possible to integrate the logging according to the needs of the
integrator.
Andrew Harris
Java Architect
andrew.harris@capgemini.co.uk
--
Andrew
Harris
andrewsh@netcomuk.co.uk