From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Sun May 13 20:21:59 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 84E5316A402 for ; Sun, 13 May 2007 20:21:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from Thomas.Sparrevohn@btinternet.com) Received: from smtp814.mail.ird.yahoo.com (smtp814.mail.ird.yahoo.com [217.146.188.74]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id F041A13C45E for ; Sun, 13 May 2007 20:21:58 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from Thomas.Sparrevohn@btinternet.com) Received: (qmail 90270 invoked from network); 13 May 2007 20:21:57 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=btinternet.com; h=Received:X-YMail-OSG:Reply-To:From:To:Cc:References:In-Reply-To:Subject:Date:Message-ID:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding:X-Mailer:Thread-Index:Content-Language; b=ZmOiGh+KeKVrSq7stBDASG7a5OS0mL3eDCjrWfwjiyqXQSr2jjUREgTUFXsMw5BK9fri2GjRaIyDdUZztTyKHZgWxNTv7RPuzRM/fmaSEqmDYGO1tjZFMHFpHca+6jKIZlx1QrfokLLSQ3bLJU3WLBmbUCh1z+DbeLHzK+2qp/w= ; Received: from unknown (HELO w2fzz0vc03) (thomas.sparrevohn@btinternet.com@86.134.25.217 with login) by smtp814.mail.ird.yahoo.com with SMTP; 13 May 2007 20:21:57 -0000 X-YMail-OSG: ralh9eEVM1k9FgrrNBe910_VGLbmmltNoonTC75O6IJXNKMQA_7l3MtNegYoOZ6Dy9DttoBLXA-- From: "Thomas Sparrevohn" To: "'Benjamin Lutz'" , References: <20070512004209.GA12218@lpthe.jussieu.fr> <20070513103757.GA33322@turion.vk2pj.dyndns.org> <200705131258.50309.Thomas.Sparrevohn@btinternet.com> <200705132042.26167.mail@maxlor.com> In-Reply-To: <200705132042.26167.mail@maxlor.com> Date: Sun, 13 May 2007 21:21:56 +0100 Message-ID: <001701c7959c$5ab84110$1028c330$@Sparrevohn@btinternet.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 12.0 Thread-Index: AceVjnjsvFACvNZRTXCuvdKgXtDliAAC/hMg Content-Language: en-gb Cc: 'Michel Talon' Subject: RE: DPS Initial Ideas X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Thomas.Sparrevohn@btinternet.com List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 13 May 2007 20:21:59 -0000 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