[izpack-devel] New logging stuff

[Elmar Grom]

Hi all,

I was struggling a bit to find a way for turning on specific debug channels.
I like Klaus' suggestion to use the -D command line switch of the VM to do
this.

This approach allows us avoiding special code for command line parsing. I
think that is good, because we don't want to operate IzPack with command
line switches for regular use. At the same time it gives us a simple way of
feeding this information to the logger.


Since we are on the topic, I think it is a good idea to explain how writing
debug messages in the new implementation works. Most developers are probably
not familiar with the concepts employed, since this was a suggestion from
Klaus, that he told me about in an off-line conversation.

To write a debug message, you simply call Log.addDebugMessage(). This method
then writes your message straight to stdout. The call parameters include an
optional Exception, the message template (a String) and an optional array of
detail information, that will be inserted into the template. Debug messages
are not localized.

In addition to these parameters, there is one more string that is used as
identifier for a debug channel.

The idea of debug channels is based on the following:

1) Often one wants to insert debug output (System.out.println()). This is
not always just for the moment, but might also be of interest in the future.
The tendency is then to just comment such statements out when done
debugging. We want to avoid this for a variety of reasons.

2) Given that debug messages are wide spread in the application and are
never commented out, we have to expect a veritable flood of debug messages,
which makes it very hard to find the specific messages you are looking for.

3) Debug messages would be produced all the time, even for the end user,
which is not desirable.

For these reasons debug needs to be specifically turned on to produce
output. By listing the names of desired channels, the Log class can filter
the incoming debug messages and only output the requested ones.

	Elmar

P.S. Klaus, I'll implement the switch as suggested and send you the updated
code. Should we decide on a different course, I can easily change it.

-----Original Message-----
From: izpack-devel-bounces at lists.berlios.de
[mailto:izpack-devel-bounces at lists.berlios.de]On Behalf Of Bartz, Klaus
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 2:49 AM
To: izpack-devel at lists.berlios.de
Subject: [izpack-devel] New logging stuff


Hi all,
Elmar has written a new logging stuff which supports
different languages, presents a message to the end user
and so on. Elmar has send the first version of the sources
last December.
There are different slots for errors, warnings and messages.
The message box calling wether the contents should be
written into a file or not will be presented at end of installation.
Now there is additional a debug message slot using different
channels.
In opposite to other slots I think the debug messages
should be written to stdout or stderr at the time they
will be created. If I debug, I will see messages from step
to step. One question is additional log them later with
the hole stuff or not.
An other question is how to manage the debugging channels.
I think we can use two ways. As first an xml file in the
installer which can configure it. Experts can then simple
use a spical file at the tests or edit it in the jar file.
As second a commandline option like
-DTRACE=DebugSymbol1,DebugSymbol2,DebugSymbol3
and so on. I remember that I have voted not to use
commandline options to configure the installation. Yes,
that's my meaning, but debugging is not a normal usage
of the installation and I have no lust to explain more
than four times how to edit an xml file in a jar file...

I think it will be good to use it.if exist I will change
the loggings of the classes I have written to this new
stuff.
But we have also an existent logging system with
com.izforge.izpack.util.Debug
Marc has added and changed something in it last time.
Good for debugging, only channels missing.
My question is, whether we should change all debugging
output to the new one or not. Else we have two classes
for the same thing.

Please comments

Cheers

Klaus

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