When coding (C#), I often encounter a common problem – which logger would be the best? Maybe log4net, maybe one from Microsoft.EnterpriseLibrary, maybe my own one? The answer is simpler that someone could imagine – this one which can produce clean and nice looking output. A log file is usually read by humans so it’s a must for a logger to produce something that is easy to search through.

I am really pissed off when see a bloated logger with many “fantastic” functions like mail sending, multithreading, thread-safety and many others… whose output looks like vomit. I will not present a sample by courtesy to my friend

But take look at this one below. It’s not a perfect output but isn’t it clear and easy to read?

[DBG] 2007-09-25 12:10:32 - Initialization of an object
[DBG] 2007-09-25 12:10:35 - Loading data
[ERR] 2007-09-25 12:10:35 - System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
    at Microsoft.BizTalk.Deployment.BizTalkAssembly.GetConnectedPorts(BtsCatalogExplorer explorer, String pipelineFullyQualifiedName)
    at Microsoft.BizTalk.Deployment.BizTalkAssembly.RemovePortsUsingPipelines()
    at Microsoft.BizTalk.Deployment.BizTalkAssembly.RemovePipelines()
    at Microsoft.BizTalk.Deployment.BizTalkAssembly.Remove()
    at Microsoft.BizTalk.Deployment.BizTalkAssembly.RemoveNamedModule(String
server, String database, String assemblyName, String assemblyVersion, String
assemblyCulture, String assemblyPublicKeyToken, ApplicationLog log)
[ERR] 2007-09-25 12:10:38 - System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
    at Controls_X_YZ.MethodXYZ(Bar bar) in c:\code.ascx.cs:line 256
[INF] 2007-09-25 12:11:00 - Mail with an error has been sent


What kind of information should be logged in your opinion? Which kind of text formatting do you prefer?