Re: [boost] A meta-proposal for logging

From: Gareth Buxton (gareth.buxton_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-04-03 15:59:02

>    I can't disagree more with this. IMO, logging is not at all a way to 
> give information to the program user. In my mind, a logging library is 
> intended only for debugging, journaling, auditing and performance 
> measuring. Not a way to display error message or waiting message to the 
> user. In my mind, these are totally different things. Please someone, 
> give his POV on this, I think this is a major disagreement.
>
>   
I think this establishes two distinct uses for logging. I am thinking
about logging in terms of (say) an application like Apache web server.
The *user* likes to have tidy logs generated to let them know who is
accessing the server, how and when. These log files are formatted and
available to be fed into other applications that can produce nice
statistics and graphs.

To me this is what I mean by 'logging'. What you are talking about is
trace debugging. For this activity I think using the logger is perfectly
valid. This is an area where you might make most legitimate use of
macros. But to my mind, as far as 'logging' is concerned it is only a
'niche' usage.

The problem is that many developers only really use logging for this
purpose and this is all they want from a logging system. However there
are many medium to large  systems out there that utilise logging as a
core function/side-effect of their activity.

Now for programmers with the task of writing these business  and
enterprise class applications that expect reliable and accurate logs,
capable of driving statistical analysis, billing engines and the like, a
standard, flexible and extensible library would be of great benefit.

So it is possible we have two tasks here.

1) A basic development/debugging tool
2) A  fully competent systems logging library.

Now my interest lies in the second of these though I also want to be
able to do the first. It would be nice to think that the one could be
derived from the other for consistency. After all as a developer why use
two logging systems when you can use one?