Re: [PLUG] XML, text, and the development of unix

[kmhryhpdblyx@spammotel.com]

At 11:09 AM 11/25/2003, you wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 25, 2003 at 10:44:14AM -0500, kmhryhpdblyx@spammotel.com wrote:
> > I think it's a perfect example.  You can learn XML once and you can then
> > understand the basic syntax of any XML file as opposed to having to learn
> > the syntax of every application you want to use.
>
> Not quite.  The syntax is only worth so much.  That's like saying
> once you learn how to use a line-oriented file format that uses # as
> a comment character, you can understand any config file.

That's why I said "basic syntax".  It means I don't have to worry about 
knowing to use tabs instead of spaces for example.

> Learning XML syntax doesn't buy you much.  It doesn't help you debug an
> XHTML layout, for example.  Knowing how to debug an XHTML layout doesn't
> help you understand why your Ant script is buggy, or where you XSLT
> stylesheet bombs out.

Sorry, I thought we were discussing text config files?  I look at it this 
way, it's pretty neat to have the _option_ of creating an XSLT stylesheet 
for your config file if that's what turns you on.   Then you could display 
your config file in a browser if you'd like.

> > I'm in the camp that thinks XML simplifies life.  The hard part of reading
> > the XML file has already been done by the parser.  My application just
> > needs to know how to call the parser.  Learn it once and your're done.
>
> XML makes some problems simpler, but it is not a universal simplifier.

I never said it was.

> Being able to shove all of the "hard problems" to the parser only
> simplifies one hard problem: syntactic correctness.  Your application
> will still need to deal with semantic errors, and must do so in a much
> more complicated manner.

How so?  I detect the error and handle it in an appropriate manner.  What 
difference does it make how the file is formatted?

My main point is that I think it's easier for a casual user to understand a 
well-written XML config file because they don't have to first understand 
the application-specific syntax of the plain text config file.


--
Jim Foster - jif "at" computer .org
"Being on a Beemer and not having a wave returned by a         ICQ 
679709
Sportster is like having a clipper ship's hailing not    RAM 2500 Cummins
returned by an orphaned New Jersey solid waste barge." -OTL   '03 GL1800A 

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