Tod Hagan wrote:
On Thu, 2008-09-25 at 15:20 -0400, Robert G. Brown wrote:
...XML...The fundamental problem is (as Don said as well) that as far as I know
there ARE NO really good solutions to the problem of the representation,
encapsulation, and transmission of hierarchical data structures in a
portable and efficient way. If you know of one, please correct me (and
that isn't a sarcastic request but a serious one).
I don't know if you consider them 'good solutions', but two alternatives
to XML are YAML and JSON:
YAML is nice until you accidentally change indentation. Then the game
is over. Having bolluxed up many fortran codes in my (distant past), I
have to say "just say no" to things *requiring* indentation. In YAML's
case, it suffers from the same problem with Python (yeah, I am gonna get
some nasty dirty emails now). Structure by indentation is IMO *evil*.
I have heard that GvR actually agrees with this, though that is 3rd
order hearsay.
JSON is a little more intelligent. Easier to parse.
I guess, as a person who uses Perl quite a bit, I have to smile when I
hear about some folks in some other language somewhere forming a team to
write a parser or validator for some XML they are banging their heads
on. I am spoiled by Perl's (extraordinarily) powerful tools for stuff
like this.
Darn ... I hope I didn't just light off a language war ... (ducks,
covers, and runs)
--
Joseph Landman, Ph.D
Founder and CEO
Scalable Informatics LLC,
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
web : http://www.scalableinformatics.com
http://jackrabbit.scalableinformatics.com
phone: +1 734 786 8423 x121
fax : +1 866 888 3112
cell : +1 734 612 4615
_______________________________________________
Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org
To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit
http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
