Re: [boost] [log] Review-ready version in the Vault

Subject: Re: [boost] [log] Review-ready version in the Vault
From: Peter Simons (simons_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-02-12 11:38:34

Hi Boris,

 >> I need the ability to submit log messages to an RFC 3164 conforming
 >> syslog daemon.
 >
 > I'm as puzzled as Ravi. Do I understand correctly that you expect a Boost
 > library to make a platform-specific feature platform-independent?

yes, you understood me correctly. Why does that notion puzzle you? There are
plenty of Boost libraries that abstract platform-specific features
underneath a platform-independent API, i.e. Boost.Asio, Boost.Thread,
Boost.Filesystem, Boost.Interprocess, and so on. It is quite common for
libraries to do that.

Anyway, there seems to be a misunderstanding. The protocol specified in
RFC3164 is platform-independent. It just so happens that the proposed
logging library doesn't implement that protocol. Instead, it relies on the
POSIX call syslog(3), which is not available on platforms like Windows.
Thus, the syslog back-end in the proposed logging library is
platform-specific even though the functionality itself is not. Personally, I
perceive that as an unnecessary limitation that should be lifted. However,
Andrey has stated that he doesn't want to remedy that limitation as part of
his proposal, which is why I am unhappy about the proposed library.

Take care,
Peter