Re: sysinst split project - The Configuration File

[David Young <dyoung%pobox.com@localhost>]

On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 06:32:48PM -0500, Thor Lancelot Simon wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 04:32:13PM -0600, David Young wrote:
> > 
> > Jean-Yves,
> > 
> > Most of the existing XML tools are too CPU- and memory-intensive, I
> > agree, but NetBSD happens to be the center for improvements.
> 
> Nonetheless, this seems like an application where people are likely to
> have to edit the configuration files by hand.  I would like to register,
> again, my strong objection to using XML -- or any other format which has
> XML's repugnant feature of token delimiters with semantic meaning, which
> is about as bad for human usability as possible -- in any application in

You will have to give an example of this "repugnant feature," because
your description does not ring a bell.  Taking a wild guess, you're
stuck on some degenerate case involving entities.

> NetBSD in which it may be reasonably expected that humans will have to or
> choose to hand-edit the chosen data format.

I don't expect that at all.  I wrote:
> I know that writing XML by hand is objectionable, so establish a
> one-to-one mapping from your user-friendly format to an XML format.
> Provide a tool [to convert] to/from the XML format.

Dave

-- 
David Young             OJC Technologies
dyoung%ojctech.com@localhost      Urbana, IL * (217) 278-3933