[Freeciv-Dev] Re: XML

[Petr Baudis <pasky@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear diary, on Thu, Dec 06, 2001 at 11:37:01PM CET, I got a letter,
where "Per I. Mathisen" <Per.Inge.Mathisen@xxxxxxxxxxx> told me, that...
> On Wed, 5 Dec 2001, Petr Baudis wrote:
> > > That is neater.  XML is more verbose, certainly.
> > Excessively verbose I would say. I just don't think XML is good for 
> > everything.
> > This is not the case where XML would give any huge benefit.
> 
> I've done a bit XML and XSLT (XML transformations) for my employer, and I
> agree that it is extremely verbose for what it does, _but_ I also think
> that freeciv would be much better off with XML than any arcane flex/bison
> or homebrewed solution.
What's arcane on flex/bison? :)

>                         Users are getting familiar with XML (if nothing
> else, then through HTML), and using XSLT it is possible to do pretty tasty
> things without learning arcane unix tools (sorry).
Learning? Well, I already made parsers for C-like formats and it should be
relatively easy to reuse them in FreeCiv. I will give them if someone will
want them, as I'm myself interested rather in AI for now.

>                                                    It is also the most
> multiplatform solution there is.
Hmm, flex/bison is pretty portable :).

> Things you can do with the rulesets with XSLT off the top of my head:
>  - automagically create documentation for modpacks
>  - automagically create tech trees from modpacks
Easy with scripts or wrappers for parser.

>  - edit them in Emacs and other XML editors with validation
Well, you have a validation in the parser itself. And you can make
syntax file which can easily act as validator (at least in vim, no clue
about other editors like emacs).

>  - run syntax validation tools on any platform or through a web page
Any point in that? :)

> But I think whoever takes on the daunting task of fixing the improvements
> code should get the final say in this :)
Obviously.

-- 

                                Petr "Pasky" Baudis

UN*X programmer, UN*X administrator, hobbies = IPv6, IRC, FreeCiv hacking
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