I'm curious.
Can someone explain to me what the big win is with these xml-style formats?
More "modern" just don't cut it here. What else is there to it?
It's definitely more verbose, with lots of cruft you need to get just 
right, to express something rather simple.
The size of the files seem to grow to about triple.
It's a mess to deal with if you need to edit by hand.

I'm one of those guys who still haven't jumped on the xml bandwagon. Try 
to convince me, or I'll keep thinking you're morons. :)

	Johnny

matthew sporleder skrev:
> On 6/17/07, Martin Husemann <martin@duskware.de> wrote:
>> On Sun, Jun 17, 2007 at 10:47:53AM -0400, Jared D. McNeill wrote:
>> >               <key>userconf</key>
>> >               <array>
>> >                       <string>disable acpi</string>
>> >                       <string>disable isapnp</string>
>> >                       <string>disable mca</string>
>> >                       <string>disable eisa</string>
>> >                       <string>disable pcmcia</string>
>> >               </array>
>>
>> What is the point of encoding anything but instructions that you could 
>> give
>> to userconf at the prompt in this file?
>>
>> (Note: this is not about plist format, I would like to understand why you
>> put three levels of wrappers [array,dict,xml] around a linear list of
>> input data)
>>
>> i.e: why is the above not a simple file like:
>>
>> --8<--
>> disable acpi
>> disable isapnp
>> disable mca
>> disable eisa
>> disable pcmcia
>> -->8--
>>
>> Please explain, I realy don't understand the idea behind it.
>>
> 
> 
> Personally, I think the idea of using xml for this sort of thing is a
> lot nicer (and certainly more modern) than attempting to fit
> everything into more "flat" formats.  Let's say, for example, that you
> wanted to set some device-specific options:
> 
> <key>userconf</key>
>  <pciopts>
>    <device>sip0</device>
>      <array>
>          <string>disable halfduplex</string>
>      </array>
>  </pciopts>
> 
> I feel is better than the solaris /etc/system style.  (which seems to
> be more of what you're pushing for)