Re: XML as a standard UNIX config file format (Re: Caldera installation - something Debian should learn)

[Gerhard Poul <gp@atnet.at>]

Hi,

> BE> An XML PArser is very heavy wighted 
> 
> $ ls -l libxml.so.0.0.0
> -rw-r--r--   1 root     root        89100 Mar 26 15:01 libxml.so.0.0.0
> 
> This is the one used by GNOME. It is from the W3 Consortium.

No... It's written by a member of the W3C. But I don't think it's the
official reference implementation by the W3C... It's not an official
implementation... He just knows what he's doing ;-)))

> BE> and I dont see a Reason for it.
> 
> I am sick of checking if I may use tab or not, what is the syntax for
> config file xyz etc. Especially if you don't configure the stuff every 
> day. An editor which knows where I may put what option is really
> could. Ease of use and code reuse.

I hate using special DTD editors... But you can look at a dtd to know the
exact file format... That's really cool... and authors don't have to
implement a checkconfig function because you just have to tell the parser to
check if it's valid... (of course you need a validating parser for that)

> BE> Each config file will still have different strucutres and tag
> BE> names which you have to learn.
> 
> As mentioned above, the editor knows what you can put in every level.

hmmm... It's written in the DTD... that's why he knows it... and tags should
be easy to recognize... they shouldn't be
<procmailtag38363>blah</procmailtag38363>

I don't see a problem. If you don't recognize a tag you can look into your
DTD and read it... It's that easy...

cu
 gerhard