Hey!
I’m excited to share an early look at Nexlog, a logging library I’ve been working on that aims to move beyond traditional “print and forget” logging. Instead, Nexlog seeks to help developers understand and reason about the behavior of their applications in more intuitive ways.
Key Features (Planned & In Progress):
-
Pattern Recognition & Auto-Categorization
Nexlog uses machine learning-inspired techniques to automatically detect and group recurring log patterns. Instead of manually sifting through hundreds of similar messages, you’ll be able to identify trends and root causes at a glance. -
Contextual Logging
By maintaining a “context tree” of related operations, Nexlog can track causality between events. You can visualize which log entries are related, see how certain operations led to others, and follow a clear chain of events through your application’s execution. -
Time-Travel Debugging (Concept Stage)
Nexlog aims to introduce a feature that stores snapshots of application state so you can “rewind” and inspect previous points in time. Imagine being able to replay events leading up to an error and figure out exactly what conditions triggered it. This concept is still in the planning phase and may change or even be removed in the future, but the goal is to offer a more hands-on, exploratory debugging experience. -
Interactive Visualization
Plan to generate real-time SVG-based diagrams and flamegraphs that help you visually navigate logs over time. Quickly zoom in to specific periods, identify hotspots, and understand how your application’s behavior evolves under different loads or conditions. -
Adaptive Logging
Nexlog will let you dynamically adjust logging verbosity based on system behavior. For instance, if an anomaly is detected, the system can automatically increase the level of detail to give you richer insights right at the critical moment. -
Semantic Analysis
Parsing log messages for natural language meaning could make it easier to find related issues across different parts of your application. By establishing semantic relationships, Nexlog can help you group events by their underlying significance rather than just their message strings.
Status & Development Focus:
- Currently, Nexlog’s core logging functionality is in place, but the more advanced features are still under development. At the moment, I’m focused on implementing the pattern recognition feature to ensure the system can reliably identify and categorize recurring log entries.
- The time-travel debugging and other advanced capabilities are planned but not yet started. Keep in mind that everything you see here is a work-in-progress, and the design, features, or scope may evolve (or even be cut) as development continues.
Feedback & Contributions:
This is all in early development, and I’m sharing it now to gather feedback, ideas, and suggestions. I’d love to hear what you think. Are these features useful to you? Is there something else you’d like to see in a logging library for Zig? Any edge cases or performance considerations I should keep in mind?
Thanks for taking a look, and I hope Nexlog can eventually become a valuable tool in your Zig projects. Stay tuned for updates, and feel free to check out the repository to follow along with the progress!
Happy hacking!