[Freeciv-Dev] Re: cityname patch

[Stan Shebs <shebs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Reinier Post wrote:
> 
> On Sun, Feb 25, 2001 at 01:17:12PM +0100, Raimar Falke wrote:
> 
> > > I could imagine to use lisp for rulesets, server commands and namers for
> > > example.
> >
> > AFAIK XML coult be used for rulesets. It is also more modern. I didn't
> > say better. IMHO the current rulesets and server commands are fine. I
> > don't see a reason for changings this. What are namers exactly?
> 
> XML is a more expressive format: like Lisp, and unlike the existing
> ruleset format,it can express arbitrarily nested structures, and the
> existing format can not.  There are already 'hacks' in the rulesets to
> express nested datastructures.

I think XML would be a win over Freeciv's current ruleset syntax,
which seems to be picking up lots of special cases - this is going
to become a problem as a broader range of Civ-like games get
supported.

XML for Xconq was discussed recently, although the conclusion was
that it was more complex than GDL and didn't have any clear advantage,
except perhaps for greater familiarity (let us not say "buzzword
compliance" :-) ).

Stan