Getting-Started.md

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Getting Started - The Basics

The simplest possible example using the ubiquitous "Hello World":

Hello.cs

#define TRACE
using System.Diagnostics;

class Program {
  static TraceSource _trace = new TraceSource("Hello");

  public static void Main() {
    _trace.TraceInformation("Hello World!");
  }
}

Hello.exe.config

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <system.diagnostics>
    <sources>
      <source name="Hello" switchValue="All">
        <listeners>
          <clear />
          <add name="console" 
            type="System.Diagnostics.ConsoleTraceListener" />
        </listeners>
      </source>
    </sources>
  </system.diagnostics>
</configuration>

Compile with csc Hello.cs (in .NET 4.0 you may need csc Hello.cs /r:System.dll), and run, you should get the following output:

PS C:\Essential.Diagnostics\Examples> csc.exe Hello.cs
PS C:\Essential.Diagnostics\Examples> .\Hello.exe
Hello Information: 0 : Hello World!

Note that instead of #define TRACE you would usually compile as csc Hello.cs /d:TRACE, which is turned on by default in Visual Studio.

A simple "Hello World" isn’t however very useful for showing the different capabilities of logging, so the next page will walk you through a logging primer to introduce the range of features available in System.Diagnostics and the Essential.Diagnostics extensions.

Next: Logging Primer