inconsistent semantics on type "Logger"

[mrkagelui]

Hi, currently Logger uses a mix of value and pointer semantics, e.g., WithContext has a value receiver, Fatal, Err etc have pointer receivers, why is this? sorry if this has been brought up before

[nikicat]

I'm very curious too. Pointer receivers prevent me from using zerolog.Logger objects returned from a function call.

[mitar]

In general in Go, pointer receivers are used when you want to modify the struct inside the method, and value receiver when you do not do so (or, you return a copy). I think zerolog is pretty consistent in using one or the other so that it does not needlessly use pointer receivers when they are not really needed.

I am not sure how is this preventing anyone from returning objects from function calls? With zerolog you do have to be mindful when you are making a copy of the struct and when you are modifying struct in-place. Are you talking about that?

[mitar]

I think this is a duplicate of #400 anyway.

Also FAQ on this topic. It does recommend having consistency here in having all methods use pointer receivers. I think this is a bit of historical thing with zerolog while its API developed.