config language

[Bob Drzyzgula]

On Tue, May 20, 2003 at 06:49:15AM -0600, ron minnich wrote:
> 
> On Tue, 20 May 2003, Mark Wilkinson wrote:
> 
> > Greg, what you've suggested looks to lend itself towards an XML type
> > markup.
> 
> Thanks for the suggestions and looking at the idea, but we're not going
> XML. Sorry, but we've got a real bias here against using text markup
> languages for other purposes.
> 
> Besides, Greg language is pretty, and the xml example is in my opionion 
> kind of ugly ...
> 
> Other than that, however, sounds like you think Greg's idea is ok?
> 
> ron

Ron,

Given that you just bemoaned the work neccessary to build
a C-based parser for a new language, one would think that
you would be interested in a solution wherein the parser
comes pretty much for free. With an XML-based config file,
you can have a correct, validating parser implemented in
an afternoon. With some thought put into defaults, the
translation of the existing config files into XML could be
automated with a small amount of effort, and config file
editors that do not allow the creation of invalid config
files could easily be constructed.

PyRXP will vacuum up an XML document into a native Python
data structure, and validate the document against a DTD
if you have one: http://www.reportlab.com/xml/pyrxp.html
It's fast, GPL'd, and brain-dead easy to use.

--Bob