Re: Some more debconf queries

[Eray Ozkural <exa@ttnet.net.tr>]

Michael Alan Dorman wrote:
> 
> Eray Ozkural <exa@ttnet.net.tr> writes:
> > A documentation language is only good for documentation.
> 
> Eray,
> 
> XML is not "a documentation language"---it is a well-defined way to
> represent structured information.

Thanks for the information. Unfortunately, I read the XML standard
documents, too. I just don't like it. Correct me, but do I have
to enjoy every international standard? There's a HPF standard, but I like
it and Linda developer X doesn't. So? And yeah, I did an implementation
of an international standard. (Won't name here :) But ask me if I like it!
No way! It's brain dead. I sometimes fear the lovely ISO C++ is like that
also. Hmm, and is not UML kind of a standard? But it sucks badly.
So what? Even Java may be said to have some standard, and does it
make it so wonderful?

I understand that standards are a Good Thing(TM). The thing is I just
don't feel very comfortable about any <thing>ML. And I know
that there are a lot of respectable people who do stuff with XML, and
that XML is going to be great for a whole lot of UI and representation
issues, since it's so interoperable... Sorry, I just can't bring up
the *hype* now.

> 
> That most documentation is also structured information, and thus well
> suited to being represented in XML, is coincidence.
> 

Oh yes, it's just a mark-up language. It's also a coincidence
that most programs have a procedural nature, and thus well suited
to being represented in C.


> That most configuration files are also structured information, and
> thus well suited to being represented by XML, is suggestive.
> 

Could you please read some of my other mails? I know that XML
is okay for representing structured information. I had some other
points, about how a better configuration language might be designed.
(Like readability, and a native grammar formalism [like DCG], and
liberal use of literal syntax...) 

-- 
 ++++-+++-+++-++-++-++--+---+----+----- ---  --  -  - 
 +  Eray "eXa" Ozkural                   .      .   .  . . .
 +  CS, Bilkent University, Ankara             ^  .  o   .      .
 |  mail: erayo@cs.bilkent.edu.tr                .  ^  .   .