Date: Sun, 13 May 2007 21:21:56 +0100 From: "Thomas Sparrevohn" <Thomas.Sparrevohn@btinternet.com> To: "'Benjamin Lutz'" <mail@maxlor.com>, <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org> Cc: 'Michel Talon' <talon@lpthe.jussieu.fr> Subject: RE: DPS Initial Ideas Message-ID: <001701c7959c$5ab84110$1028c330$@Sparrevohn@btinternet.com> In-Reply-To: <200705132042.26167.mail@maxlor.com> References: <20070512004209.GA12218@lpthe.jussieu.fr> <20070513103757.GA33322@turion.vk2pj.dyndns.org> <200705131258.50309.Thomas.Sparrevohn@btinternet.com> <200705132042.26167.mail@maxlor.com>
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Well - Naturally if the only index format was based upon XML it would not be very practical - However XML currently seems to take the lead when the talk is on portability as a data format and it is very easy to convert to "Pure Text" - There seems to be a bias towards SNMP MIB format generally in FreeBSD e.g. sysctl etc. which has even worse drawbacks But as I said - I very much doubt that the format of the INDEX file and the on disk package db structure is the most burning issue for ports - I am sure that there are optimisations that could improve the current performance without having to change the structure into SQL - If however that is the target then XML would be a significantly better candidate because a proper XML schema can be used as a middle layer for all the tools - regardless the storage structure of the package db etc. - If we introduced a proper abstraction - then people can use SQL/ flat files / existing structures But the tools we still only need one common interface to XML > -----Original Message----- > From: Benjamin Lutz [mailto:mail@maxlor.com] > Sent: 13 May 2007 19:42 > To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org > Cc: Thomas Sparrevohn; Michel Talon > Subject: Re: DPS Initial Ideas > > On Sunday 13 May 2007 13:58, Thomas Sparrevohn wrote: > > Using XML for INDEX are a very good idea mainly because it allows > > "ports" to interface in an easy way to external tools - e.g. java > > frontends - web browsers etc, etc. However there are drawbacks - Yet > I > > feel that the discussion about what tool to use as indexing are > > completely misplaced if the only point is that somebody likes SQL > > better than a directory tree. > > I'd have said that using XML for INDEX is a bad idea, because INDEX can > then no longer be easily processed with any of the tools in the FreeBSD > base system. With the format it uses now, I can easily grep, awk, etc > it. If you need an XML version of INDEX, it's easy to have just these > tools build one for you though. > > Not to mention that INDEX is already big enough as it is, imo. I don't > see why it should be bloated even more with redundant information. > > Cheers > Benjamin
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