[Xastir-Dev] Thoughts on converting config to XML

[Jack Twilley]

>>>>> "Jeff" == Jeff Brenton <KA9VNV <ka9vnv at dididahdahdidit.com>> writes:

Jack> I've been thinking about the pros and cons of converting
Jack> Xastir's unique configuration file format to XML.  What do the
Jack> rest of you think?

Jeff> Switching to XML will be great for explosively increasing the
Jeff> size of the configuration file, while significantly raising the
Jeff> obsfucation level...

I agree with the former, and I disagree with the latter.  I find that
the added syntactical sugar actually makes things easier to understand.

Jeff> If there is never a need for humans to manipulate the
Jeff> configuration file, the format does not matter. It can be a
Jeff> binary dump of the data area of the program, for heaven's
Jeff> sake. But, if humans are expected to change things manually, XML
Jeff> is one of the WORST choices, in my opinion!

What is the best choice, in your opinion?  I've worked with worse
formats and better formats.  The type-checking feature of XML works
very well with the complex data types the Xastir configuration file
contains.  I prefer to work with raw HTML files than with editors and
tools, and I don't have any real problems with negotiating the tags.

Jeff> -- Best regards, Jeff mailto:ka9vnv at dididahdahdidit.com

Jack.
-- 
Jack Twilley
jmt at twilley dot org
http colon slash slash www dot twilley dot org slash tilde jmt slash
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