Re: Using XML to handle all configuration files

[phil@bolthole.com]

On Wed, Jan 24, 2001 at 12:36:59AM -0300, Nicolás Lichtmaier wrote:
> > > >...[PHil B wrote]
> > XML doesnt magically write your scripts for you. All it does is just
> > enforce a particular kind of grammar. You STILL have to tailor your 
> > parsing scripts heavily between different programs , and between different
> > versions of programs.
> ..
>  XML is structured data. You don't need any special tricks to parse it, with
> an xpath enabled program you could extract any piece information very
> easily, kind of a mini SQL language for xml files:
> 
> e.g:
> 
> /interfaces/iface[@family='inet6']
> 
> will select all nodes like this one:  <interfaces>....<iface family="inet6">

but you first have to know that an "iface" is under /interfaces, plus
you have t know that it has an "inet6" option, and you also have to
know what to do with the "node" once you get it.

hence my point that you still need to tailor your stuff to be application
specific every time.

hell, we could all use LDAP ldiff format. that's another "standard", that
is "easily" browsable :-)

in an abstract sense, there's not much difference.
ALthough obviously, there's not as many tools to use it for config file
purposes ;-)