Re: sysinst split project - The Configuration File

[Matthew Mondor <mm_lists%pulsar-zone.net@localhost>]

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:54:41 +0000
David Holland <dholland-current%netbsd.org@localhost> wrote:

> On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 02:50:39PM -0800, Jason Thorpe wrote:
>  > >  3. Configuration should be done in a concise and legible format,
>  > > such as key/value pairs, nested key/value pairs, columnar tables, or
>  > > whatever. Since XML is content-free^W^W just syntax, any such sane
>  > > format can easily be represented as XML. (As long as the data remains
>  > > strictly hierarchical and isn't, say, graph-structured. But that's not
>  > > likely to be a problem here.)
>  > 
>  > Right.  I tend to favor property lists for this ... but the
>  > prevalent format for those in modern times are the XML flavor.
> 
> Config files meant for manual editing should use some other syntax.
> 
> Why is it again that proplib can't handle a simple key=value and
> key={ key=value... } syntax?

This is a question I asked myself several times as well, why doesn't it
also support a saner import/export format (SExp or JSON for instance)?

That it optionally can import/export XML is allright for some data
interchange situations i.e. between OSX and NetBSD, but it's a hideous
format for any other purpose in my opinion.  Especially as we're
starting to involve proplib in more and more situations...

Thanks,
-- 
Matt