Yes David, This avoids calling the toString() method on the objects until the log message is actually required to be logged. If the toString() methods is an expensive method, time-wise, this time is avoided when the log message is not needed. Look at http://logback.qos.ch/manual/architecture.html if you have not already. Go to a section called 'Better alternative' near the bottom of the page. Brett From: logback-user-bounces@qos.ch [mailto:logback-user-bounces@qos.ch] On Behalf Of David Harkness Sent: Friday, 8 February 2013 10:29 AM To: logback users list Subject: Re: [logback-user] commons-logging -> sl4j -> logback On Thu, Feb 7, 2013 at 1:11 PM, Brett Walker <brett.walker@geometryit.com<mailto:brett.walker@geometryit.com>> wrote: Log.debug("The object is {0}", object); Are positional parameters a new feature in Logback? I just started using it and all the examples I've see use empty braces with no way to reorder the parameters via the message. In other words, I would expect to see this: Log.debug("The object is {}", object); David