Model-Based, Platform-Independent Logging for Heterogeneous Targets

A recurring issue in generative approaches, in particular if they generate code for multiple target languages, is logging. How to ensure that logging is performed consistently for all the supported languages? How to ensure that the specific semantics of the source language, e.g. a modeling language or a domain-specific language, is reflected in the logs? How to expose logging concepts directly in the source language, so as to let developers specify what to log? This paper reports on our experience developing a concrete logging approach for ThingML, a textual modeling language built around asynchronous components, statecharts and a first-class action language, as well as a set of "compilers" targeting C, Go, Java and JavaScript.