[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: some days I'm wrong
K. Ari Krupnikov wrote: > One of the promises of XML is "no more small languages". I've just > spent a week worth of evenings reading fvwm*(1) manual pages to figure > out a feature in it config file format. I kept wishing it had been > XML, because most of the time I wasted I spent figuring out the > syntax. Moderately-relevant trivia: In er 1998 or so I did a keynote at the second-ever Perl conference, on the subject of XML and perl, perl having just received its first implant of XML technology. I cast about for how to bring syntax-design issues home to a bunch of perl hacks, and eventually took a tour through the config files of a linux system, showing how even excellent software like inetd can feature miserable syntax in its config files. I used half a dozen different examples which I forget, but I remember that I built up to fvwm as the example of ultimately horrible syntax - its config file combines positional parameters, function-like notation, continuation-line markers, and IIRC m4 macro processor dung. It's outstandingly bad, and I got a substantial proportion of the audience roaring with laughter. The message for the crowd was that if XML helps us get out of the business of designing syntax, that might be a win. Having said all that, the RNC syntax is dramatically better than any plausible XML alternative. -Tim
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