Re: proplist [was: Importing xmlgrep into base]

[Nhat Minh Le <nhat.minh.le%huoc.org@localhost>]

At Sat, 17 Apr 2010 12:39:58 +0400,
Aleksej Saushev wrote:
> 
> Adam Hoka <adam.hoka%gmail.com@localhost> writes:
> 
> > On Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:04:29 +0300
> > markucz%gmail.com@localhost wrote:
> >
> >> Flaming left aside, I think SDL[1] is a good choice - it's easily parsed
> >> *and* it's human-readable and editable. It seems somewhat akin to what
> >> named.conf uses though it has some XML-ish constructs. Not as good as 
> >> s-exps
> >> (yes, I know it's highly subjective) but still better than XML.
> >> 
> >> Regards
> >> 
> >> [1]http://www.ikayzo.org/confluence/display/SDL/Home
> >
> > Again: WE ALREADY HAVE A NON-BINARY ON-DISK FORMAT FOR PROPLIB.
> 
> There's one minor problem with this format: there're almost no tools
> around to deal with it, and the only tool in NetBSD is patched up.
> As such, there's close to zero use of this non-binary format.

You can't expect a new format to just take over everything that's been
in base for the last fifteen years. And IMHO, there need to be tools
to deal with said format before it can spread.

> That it is already imported is a mistake.
> 
> And all this flame is about not making another mistake by importing
> another patched up tool to deal with another one "non-binary format"
> for any kind of data.

"Patched-up"? By no means are my tools perfect, but since nobody has
bothered to comment, I can only assume there's not much to
say. Though, if you've got something to say, please go ahead and say
it. But please keep it technical. And I would also kindly ask you to
refrain from gratuitously insulting other people's work.

> This is wrong approach. If you think that a tool is useful,
> make a package and popularize it.

Will do. This does not prevent it from being imported into base,
though.

--
Nhat Minh