I would like to say that I find that the Log4J project to be superior to JSR47 on many grounds, most of which are succintly set forth in Ceki Gülcü's critique of JSR47.

I found the presences of logging levels like FINE, FINEST to be quite meaningless across an entire API; but possibly meaningful withing a single company (a small company), however a much better alternative is to just have that company define their own logging levels. I was hoping that JSR47 would draw a line in the Java sands, and say: From now on you can integrate logging of 3rd party products into your own logging systems, but if 3rdparty products actually use FINE / FINEST, etc, they are highly likely to view the meaning as being different; so how can I now integrate ?

I'm also somewhat disturbed by the way in which JSR47 lacks an SPI. I've quite liked the way in which other areas of software have been commoditized by Javasoft; I felt that was very statesmans-like, it's also generates so-called best-of-breed implementations. JSR47 however does not commoditize the market, but actually punishes the best logging product for Java there is: log4j, this is, in my opinion, a foolish step to make. You may find that not everyone will appreciate the reduced functionality that JSR47 offers and stick with log4j. Had you provided JSR47 with an SPI then it would not have been long before log4j would have implemented the SPI; and bingo! JSR47 would have gathered support immediately (much like JAXP has). It's a pity that the main factor in creating JSR47 has been the Not Invented Here syndrome.

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