Branko:
I don't see why Subversion would want to bend it's configuration parser to
the will of what Python's ConfigParser module does... does anyone outside
the world of Python care about parsing the format of Python's ConfigParser
module?
Also, yes; I didn't say this format was extremely difficult to write a
parser for. Most configuration file formats don't tend to take that long to
write; you just end up with everyone writing them. And what for? XML
offers the ability to not care about the parser itself and just concentrate
on what is stored in it. Is there an easy way to access this configuration
file from TCL? No. Is there an easy way to access an XML files? Yes. Do
you realize that MS actually has numerous implementations of INI file
parsers that their different departments hacked together for various
reasons? Are they all 100% compatible in how they interpret whitespace, or
how they handle special characters? Nope.
XML has some major advantages here if nothing else because of the ubiquity
of externally maintained implementations in numerous languages that are
bound in representation by a standards body.
I also find your comment about Subversion not using a validating parser
orthogonal. Just because Subversion doesn't has nothing to do with whether
or not the actual program I'd write to mess with the configuration file
would (and I guarantee you I would choose one that does).
*reads that last comment and gets this frightening look of a future with XML
snippets embedded within an INI file... fights to get image out of mind...
is likely tainted for life*
Sincerely,
Jay Freeman (saurik)
saurik@saurik.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Branko Čibej" <brane@xbc.nu>
To: "Jay Freeman (saurik)" <saurik@saurik.com>
Cc: "svn-dev" <dev@subversion.tigris.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2002 5:45 PM
Subject: Re: config files on Windows
> Jay Freeman (saurik) wrote:
>
> >The problem with the ini file formats for these things is that ini files
> >aren't that great at parsing and editing by a configuration manager
should
> >one ever become available.
> >
> Nonsense. I wrote such an editor (or read-write parser) in a week, and
> could convert this one in less. What's more, the format we have now is
> the same as the one used by Python's ConfigParser module.
>
...
> Now, before we start an XML-vs-WhatWeHave flame war: it is entirely
> feasible to embed XML into our config files, without changing a single
> line of code in the parser.
>
...
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Received on Wed Mar 27 00:57:29 2002