Edward B. DREGER wrote: 
> GD> Perhaps instead of XML we could use some binary "fixed format" kind
> GD> of representation.
> Or maybe something YAML-esque?

In defense of Jason's bikeshed -
- it's using, IIUC, a strict subset of XML just adequate to export its
  own stuff, so the only reason for it to set off anybody's XML-alarm
  would be the spelling of its tokens, not the inherent complexity of
  its parser.
- that presumably means that you couldn't expect proplib to parse
  arbitrary output from XML tools, but you could expect existing
  general purpose XML tools to do useful things with proplib output
  if you wanted to.
- the choice was based, IIUC, on prior art from Apple. Even if that
  has no direct technical benefit (this kind of device-dependent stuff
  might never be exchanged between OSs), it still offers a kind of
  conceptual harmony to people who might administer both NetBSD and OSX
  machines.
- it's already painted and will hold bicycles. core@'s already pictured
  having those bikes finally out of the kitchen.

As someone already asked earlier in this thread, what's the maximum
difference in memory footprint to be expected from replacing the current
proplib parser with any other parser?

-Chap