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0 pointsmarcosdumay9y ago0 comments

If you are creating a library? You shouldn't log at all. Return errors or throw them - do not log.

If you are creating a console application? Stderr is the standard way to log errors. Let the user decide if where it points to.

If you are creating a daemon, set the log destiny at the launch script. The application can either log to stderr anyway and let the script handle everything, or offer a parameter for setting the log channel.

The Java community fixation on logging is really not deserved. It's more caused by bad error handling by their main web servers than by any fundamental problem.

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empthought9y ago

Logging is useful for more than just error conditions; how does that square with your advice to library authors?

marcosdumayOP9y ago

If it's not an error condition, you return it.

Libraries must not do any covert IO (in fact, any covert anything). A logging library is the only one that should log, and not their own messages.

They may write into some main application supplied collector, if it is not global, or if it is clearly handled as a message passing API.

The Java way is simply bad.

empthought9y ago

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your point -- by "do not log," do you mean do not call logging statements in a logging library's API, or simply do not force a concrete implementation of a logging library? I understand and agree with the second one completely, but the first one seems unrealistic.

I can't see how the Apache httpclient library could sanely "return" the different state transitions and pieces of data that are logged in its wire-level logging, but this is certainly a case where the logging statements are welcome.

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0 pointsmarcosdumay9y ago0 comments

If you are creating a library? You shouldn't log at all. Return errors or throw them - do not log.

If you are creating a console application? Stderr is the standard way to log errors. Let the user decide if where it points to.

The Java community fixation on logging is really not deserved. It's more caused by bad error handling by their main web servers than by any fundamental problem.

0 comments

empthought9y ago

Logging is useful for more than just error conditions; how does that square with your advice to library authors?

marcosdumayOP9y ago

If it's not an error condition, you return it.

Libraries must not do any covert IO (in fact, any covert anything). A logging library is the only one that should log, and not their own messages.

They may write into some main application supplied collector, if it is not global, or if it is clearly handled as a message passing API.

The Java way is simply bad.

empthought9y ago

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j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse