[boost] Re: Logging Library -- Formal Review Request

From: Matthew P. Cashdollar (mpc_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-05-05 03:12:15

Hello,

I used John's logging library for a project at work and it worked well. 
  Note that this review is for the previous version, not the one 
currently on the website, which I haven't tried yet.

* What is your analysis of the design?

Before trying this library I tried some other C++ logging libraries, 
including all the Log4J clones.  For various reasons I rejected all of 
those - some of them wouldn't even compile, and their documentation was 
lacking.  I also had my own logging code but it was in a more C style of 
programming and I wanted something that was in C++.

Compared to the Log4J clones, I found John's library to be easy to 
understand.

There are two shortcomings that I found:

- Whenever you restart your program it wipes out the previous log file. 
  I could have coded around this, but it wasn't a big deal to me.

It would be nice to have it automatically rename or append to the old 
log file instead of just replacing it, IMO.

- No log rotation.  This library does not support log rotation (at least 
in the version I tried).  I didn't need this feature for my project, but 
I'm sure it will be a frequently requested feature.

* What is your evaluation of the documentation?

Great.

* What is your evaluation of the potential usefulness of the library.

Nearly essential.  Just about every program I've written uses some kind 
of logging.

* Did you try to use the library?  With what compiler?  Did you have any 
problems?

VS.NET '03 on Win2k, which didn't have any problems.

* How much effort did you put into your evaluation?

I used it in the program I was working on, which was multithreaded, with 
each thread printing log messages.  I was able to run it on even the 
slowest computers without any problem.

* Are you knowledgeable about the problem domain?

I'm no expert.  I just wanted to use a logging library which used 
streams instead of printf-style formatting and worked with multiple 
threads.  This library has fewer features than others, but it gets the 
job done.

* Do you think the library should be accepted as a Boost library?

Yes, but I suggest the author adds log rotation, because it is a feature 
lots of people need.

-Matt