Some examples include personalization, utility, and reporting services supported by standards such as JSR-47, which defines a standard logging API for error and trace logs.

In principle, one can trace that history back in cosmic time by observing a so-called standard candle, a class of astronomical object whose intrinsic luminosity is uniform.

This abstract aspect, called Trace, has several standard methods for printing messages about entering and exiting a method or constructor, and for formatting the output.