Please, no more logging!

http://jroller.com/page/fate?entry=please_no_more_logging

What is it with opensores and logging? I am utterly perplexed by why so many popular frameworks think that everyone cares about their startup cruft.

Maybe the whole problem can be traced to the linux kernel bootup console. We all probably remember the thrill of seeing that, of feeling faintly hackery and l33t, even though we're not kernel hackers and most of it was in fact gibberish. It didn't matter that what the messages actually said had no real impact on the end result (either the system came up or it didn't, and which one happened had nothing to do with the messages). What mattered is that it made the average nerdy fuckface feel cool and hackerish.

Fast foward a few years, and those linux chocolate log miners stumbled bleary eyed into the enterprise world and had to learn Java. Being linux communallovefaggotarse types, they had to bring in the same spirit of assholeness to everyone else.

So, what do we have as a result? We have JBoss, with 6-7 pages of output when things go well, and a (not very) abridged version of War and Peace when they (usually) do not.

We have Hibernate, which feels it's important to inform you of every time a Fleury inserts anything into Gavin's ass, or every time Christian (he's the asshole right? I always confuse him with Emmanuel, one of them is an utter turd, the other is not) defecates on a homeless person.

Not to be outdone, Spring jumps into the fray as well. Reams and reams of utterly worthless output, all about how its beans are busy molesting one another with gay abandon. Thank fuck for the full list of every worthless little bean that's defined, because, you know, it's important to be told of what your own XML files say. It's not like you wrote them or anything.

It's like there's a whole generation of developers that's developed collective amnesia over the difference between DEBUG and INFO.

I beg of all you opensores people, please please think of us users when you poop out your logging. Put messages that WE think are useful, not that you like to masturbate to. When I start up a library or framework, I expect it to start, and don't need to know the details. I want to know when things go wrong, not when things go right. Maybe being mentioned in log4j.properties files everywhere makes you feel special. The person mentioning you though is far, far more likely to think you're an inconsiderate self-aggrandising shithead.

Hell, I'm extending an offer to go over your app for free and send you a patch to remove all the suprious startup messages (hint hint, spring/hibernate people). Just holler if you're interested.

Oh and apologies for the long hiatus, I got married.