From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from lists.gentoo.org ([140.105.134.102] helo=robin.gentoo.org) by nuthatch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1EX4TG-0001xn-TR for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Tue, 01 Nov 2005 22:19:11 +0000 Received: from robin.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.13.5/8.13.5) with SMTP id jA1MITmE020599; Tue, 1 Nov 2005 22:18:29 GMT Received: from smtp.gentoo.org (smtp.gentoo.org [134.68.220.30]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.13.5/8.13.5) with ESMTP id jA1MGh0l000133 for <gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org>; Tue, 1 Nov 2005 22:16:43 GMT Received: from 82-41-57-20.cable.ubr08.edin.blueyonder.co.uk ([82.41.57.20] helo=snowdrop.home) by smtp.gentoo.org with esmtpa (Exim 4.43) id 1EX4Qs-0003gE-NT for gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org; Tue, 01 Nov 2005 22:16:43 +0000 Received: from localhost.home ([127.0.0.1] helo=snowdrop.home) by snowdrop.home with esmtp (Exim 4.54) id 1EX4Qo-0000JY-IL for gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org; Tue, 01 Nov 2005 22:16:38 +0000 Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2005 22:16:35 +0000 From: Ciaran McCreesh <ciaranm@gentoo.org> To: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] GLEP ??: Critical News Reporting Message-ID: <20051101221635.1a53a258@snowdrop.home> In-Reply-To: <200511012257.22527.jkt@gentoo.org> References: <20051101015125.1cc45eb4@snowdrop.home> <200511011722.29840.jkt@gentoo.org> <20051101182506.4dd701f6@snowdrop.home> <200511012257.22527.jkt@gentoo.org> X-Mailer: Sylpheed-Claws 1.9.99-rc2 (GTK+ 2.6.8; i686-pc-linux-gnu) Precedence: bulk List-Post: <mailto:gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org> List-Help: <mailto:gentoo-dev+help@gentoo.org> List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:gentoo-dev+unsubscribe@gentoo.org> List-Subscribe: <mailto:gentoo-dev+subscribe@gentoo.org> List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail <gentoo-dev.gentoo.org> X-BeenThere: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary=Signature_Tue__1_Nov_2005_22_16_35_+0000_af72Rho1sT7GI_7c; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; micalg=PGP-SHA1 X-Archives-Salt: 40b28458-e65a-4f66-86cb-2043dacfa753 X-Archives-Hash: f50cc8dbeea07843c0d9ddad54478cd5 --Signature_Tue__1_Nov_2005_22_16_35_+0000_af72Rho1sT7GI_7c Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Tue, 1 Nov 2005 22:57:13 +0100 Jan Kundr=C3=A1t <jkt@gentoo.org> wrote: | On Tuesday 01 of November 2005 19:25 Ciaran McCreesh wrote: | > On Tue, 1 Nov 2005 17:22:29 +0100 Jan Kundr=C3=A1t <jkt@gentoo.org> | > wrote: | > | What's wrong with XML format similar to the one that is used for | > | our GLSAs? | > | > 1. Portage does not handle XML. Portage will not handle XML in the | > near future. |=20 | How will it handle GLSAs then? [1] gentoolkit !=3D portage. | > 5. XML is merely adding another problem to the one we have already. |=20 | Could you please explain? Parsing XML is complicated. Writing XML is complicated. I put together a complete working client that can show news items in the plain text format proposed -- it took me fifteen minutes to write. I threw together a script which can be called after a cron sync that mails news items to root in under a minute. There is no way this could be done if XML were being used -- any task involving news items would be a major chore. | > There is no XML in this GLEP for the same reasons that there is no | > Java, CORBA, EJBs, web services, on demand computing initiatives or | > invisible pink unicorns. |=20 | I'm not sure if our GLSAs use PHP, ODBC, ASP, SOAP, computer grids or=20 | invisible pink unicorns while I'm pretty sure they do use XML. And? Why repeat previous mistakes? | > I have an eselect module which can read these news files. The whole | > thing is about the same size as the DTD would need to be for an | > XML-based solution. I have a parser written for the format in | > question. The whole thing is smaller than the initialisation code | > for an off the shelf XML parser. |=20 | Great. Why haven't you just used existing code from `glsa-check`, BTW? Because merely figuring out the XML DTD takes longer than it does to write an entire client for plain text news items. | > It's not a question of "what's wrong with XML?". It's a question of | > "what advantage would we gain by strapping a giant flapping wet | > kipper to a bicycle?". |=20 | Or (a little bit rephrased) "why should we stick with consistent file=20 | formats". Uh, you'd have to invent a load of new XML DTD stuff for this anyway. So you're not using a consistent file format at all, you're just using a consistent unnecessary layer in the middle, which as a side effect makes your files incompatible with every standard Unix tool ever written. Using XML does not magically make things compatible. XML is just a layer in the middle. Any tool processing XML files still has to worry about however the DTD in question works. You think XML magically makes things compatible? Then I suggest you write a GuieXML to Docbook conversion tool, and see how many thousand lines of XSLT it takes. All XML does is move the conversion and parsing problems to a different, more complex level. --=20 Ciaran McCreesh : Gentoo Developer (Vim, Shell tools, Fluxbox, Cron) Mail : ciaranm at gentoo.org Web : http://dev.gentoo.org/~ciaranm --Signature_Tue__1_Nov_2005_22_16_35_+0000_af72Rho1sT7GI_7c Content-Type: application/pgp-signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFDZ+lF96zL6DUtXhERAlJPAKCxaOPubQTVwwZ+C7eHoLbn8bOmTwCgucB8 X3ckrSJfRVlpl64KoLDsnwY= =6d+1 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --Signature_Tue__1_Nov_2005_22_16_35_+0000_af72Rho1sT7GI_7c-- -- gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list