[Java] How should we handle "loggers"?

[chrisdutz]

When going through our code, I've noticed that we have different ways of defining our loggers. I think it would be cool, if we could decide on one.

In general there are two ways to declare the loggers:

1. as a local variable
2. as a static variable

However usually static variables are all uppercase, but I'm also seeing some static loggers named as local variables.

[chrisdutz]

And here ... even the Slf4j folks no longer recommend any general way of doing things: https://www.slf4j.org/faq.html#declared_static
I guess in the past, there was a performance reason to to things, but this no longer seems to apply today.

[sruehl]

With the up-rise of structured loggers, context became more relevant. So with that in mind it is pretty helpful to have loggers enriched and pass it down to the downstream objects which enrich them by themselfs with their context variables.
Recently in golang I moved to this pattern out of 3 reasons:

1. Have more control over the context
2. Easier way to configure them
3. Being able to assign those log statements to the relevant tests

Point 3 becomes painfully important once you move into async territory

So I would vote for having them instance bound.

[chrisdutz]

Good point ... so there's a "almost not noticeable overhead" compared with a lot of new options, right?

[chrisdutz]

Would be awesome, if we could see who voted how :-/

[foxpluto]

I would suggest for Java to use the notation @Log4j2 present in Lombok to decrease the boilerplate an configure the logging notation externally as described here: @Log (and friends).

I voted for "log"

[foxpluto]

@chrisdutz It depends, if Lombok will be used for more feature than the simple logs one, enabling the plugin in the IDE will be worth. Lombok is a great tool for killing the Boiler Plate.

[glcj]

Hello,

I think we don't use loombok in the project (pom.xml).

I think we should not add more libraries than necessary if it can be solved within the JDK tools.

My grain of sand

[sruehl]

not having to write Boilerplate is also preventing bugs like writing getters and returning the wrong property...

[chrisdutz]

Well you don't have to write boilerplate anyway as the IDE generates that for me .... So I do prefer that over having some tool generate stuff magically.

[sruehl]

a3ea768 (here)