I'm writing a basic weather app mostly to just lea...
# getting-startedm
Matt Kessler
07/29/2025, 12:59 PMI'm writing a basic weather app mostly to just learn Kotlin.
I'm at the point where I want to log some info to file instead of console.
What are some mainstream logging utilities that people use in this space?
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hho
07/29/2025, 2:38 PMI like kotlin-logging by @oshai with Logback (but I'm only on the JVM)
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Rob Elliot
07/29/2025, 3:24 PMIt's going to depend a lot on which platform you are targeting
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Matt Kessler
07/30/2025, 1:06 PMI'm currently just developing a desktop app but I might try to get it to run on iOS eventually.
GitHub Copilot suggested this one...
https://www.slf4j.org/
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Rob Elliot
07/30/2025, 1:10 PMBy platform we mean one or more of:
• The JVM
• WASM
• Native
◦ Linux
◦ Windows
◦ macOs
◦ iOS
• Android
• JavaScript
Desktop could be JVM, WASM, Native or JavaScript depending on which way you want to jump.
Rob Elliot
07/30/2025, 1:13 PMIf you want your app to be multiplatform you probably want to write a KMP (Kotlin Multiplatform) project targeting whichever desktop you want at the moment via Kotlin Native, in which case I'd be surprised if SLF4J is any use to you, because it's very much a JVM library. But my KMP knowledge is very close to zero.
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Matt Kessler
07/30/2025, 1:43 PMGood info. So if one were to want to eventually have an app that can run on both desktop (Windows) and iOS then KMP is the way to go, right? I know when I created my project that I did not select this option...
Matt Kessler
07/30/2025, 1:44 PMOtherwise, is there a way to see if I'm setup to use the JVM, WASM, Native, etc.?
How do you choose between those options? Project settings?
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Rob Elliot
07/30/2025, 2:45 PMI'd expect it to be a matter of which gradle plugin is applied in build.gradle.kts
Rob Elliot
07/30/2025, 2:50 PMm
Matt Kessler
07/31/2025, 11:08 AMI see. So I think this...
Matt Kessler
07/31/2025, 11:08 AMimage.png
Matt Kessler
07/31/2025, 11:09 AM...means that I'm using the JVM as opposed to those other options (WASM, Native, Andriod, JavaScript).
Matt Kessler
07/31/2025, 11:11 AMThere is one point that still confuses me a bit. When I create a new project in IDEA, the default seems to use the JVM and I do see that option for KMP.
I didn't see a way to say...
I want to do WASM|Native|JavaScript|Andriod.
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Rob Elliot
07/31/2025, 4:53 PMI'm not familiar with the IntelliJ wizard, I just configure the gradle builds manually. I think on a KMP project you then state which targets you want it to build - see the page I linked. But I have zero experience with KMP so I'll bow out there.
If you're happy to stay on the JVM, SLF4J with Logback as its implementation are my preferred ways of logging (though slf4j-simple is good enough if you just want to print to stdout).
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