Re: Logging Facility for Octave

[Andrew Janke]

On 1/4/19 2:22 PM, Pavel Hofman wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Please is there any logging facility for octave? The error/warning 
> functions have a deeper behavior, I am just looking for a configurable 
> facility issuing text strings to stderr/stdout/logfile with timestamp, 
> scriptname etc. - some simple form of log4j etc.
>
> I can write my own octave methods but perhaps there is a 
> performance-optimised package or some best practice.
>
> Thanks a log for any help.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Pavel.

For logging in Matlab, I actually use an M-code wrapper layer that sits 
on top of log4j + SLF4J and presents an M-code interface for it (with 
short-circuiting for performance) and a little configurator GUI. That 
way you get all the features of log4j/SLF4J, and any Java code or 
libraries you use in your application can go through the same logging 
mechanism so it can be configured at a single point.

https://github.com/apjanke/SLF4M

(Background - I've used logging layers like this in enterprise Matlab 
systems, so I'm confident it's a decent approach.)

It wouldn't be too hard to port this to Octave. Or if Java dot-reference 
support were added to Octave (https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?48428), it 
should just work as is.

There are a couple other logging packages on MathWorks File Exchange 
that use pure M-code, and might work as is in Octave, too.

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&term=logging

I wouldn't worry about performance optimization too much; the main thing 
to worry about is keeping your logging calls out of tight loops.

Cheers,
Andrew