From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Mar 30 06:12:06 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 183AB16A4D0; Tue, 30 Mar 2004 06:12:06 -0800 (PST) Received: from mailout11.sul.t-online.com (mailout11.sul.t-online.com [194.25.134.85]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 870B943D45; Tue, 30 Mar 2004 06:12:05 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from Alexander@Leidinger.net) Received: from fwd06.aul.t-online.de by mailout11.sul.t-online.com with smtp id 1B8JyG-0006On-01; Tue, 30 Mar 2004 16:12:04 +0200 Received: from Andro-Beta.Leidinger.net (bdaNmvZaZeEr-Xrd4yfpJOi5mWNXfXJQDlSE6+mGmQTKnJxz-p84YA@[217.83.31.247]) by fmrl06.sul.t-online.com with esmtp id 1B8Jxu-0qHUWK0; Tue, 30 Mar 2004 16:11:42 +0200 Received: from Magellan.Leidinger.net (Magellan.Leidinger.net [192.168.1.1]) i2UARRP7083539; Tue, 30 Mar 2004 12:27:28 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from Alexander@Leidinger.net) Received: from Magellan.Leidinger.net (netchild@localhost [127.0.0.1]) i2UARV1k013147; Tue, 30 Mar 2004 12:27:31 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from Alexander@Leidinger.net) Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 12:27:31 +0200 From: Alexander Leidinger To: Eivind Eklund Message-Id: <20040330122731.06e1be4c@Magellan.Leidinger.net> In-Reply-To: <20040330084618.GA2645@FreeBSD.org> References: <20040328094048.GA40406@phantom.cris.net> <20040330084618.GA2645@FreeBSD.org> X-Mailer: Sylpheed version 0.9.10claws (GTK+ 1.2.10; i386-portbld-freebsd5.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Seen: false X-ID: bdaNmvZaZeEr-Xrd4yfpJOi5mWNXfXJQDlSE6+mGmQTKnJxz-p84YA@t-dialin.net cc: arch@freebsd.org cc: Alexey Zelkin Subject: Re: CFD: XMLification of NOTES X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 14:12:06 -0000 On Tue, 30 Mar 2004 08:46:18 +0000 Eivind Eklund wrote: > On Sun, 28 Mar 2004, Alexey Zelkin wrote: > > > At this point I would like to start some kind of discussion and listen for > > your ideas which features you'd like to see in application which will be > > handling these XMLs. > > I'd like to not have XML, please. XML is hard to read - there is way > too much repetition compared to content. If you have to change the > syntax, please use something more lightweight than XML (or make > absolutely sure we do not have to deal with the XML at the source level > in any way except when adding or removing devices/options to/from the > source tree.) As far as I understand his proposal, he just wants to convert NOTES. Your own kernel config stays the same. The benefit of this would be to be able to check your own config for missing or conflicting parts. In 4.x we don't have NOTES, and LINT is typically the file to read if you want to add devices or options. In 5.x you can't read LINT as easy as in 4.x, since it doesn't contains helpful comments. Reading NOTES isn't that easy either, since it is "cluttered" with hints and you have to read more than one file to see everything. The benefits I see with the effort Alexey is willing to invest is: - it should be easy to generate a LINT for compile testing - it should be easy to generate a "LINT" with comments for users (or any other kind of documentation with the purpose as mentioned above or with a purpose someone from the doc team can come up with) - it reduces the amount of help requests because of missing or conflicting options/devices - it allows to automate tasks, which we even can't think of at the moment We don't need XML to be able to do something like this, but XML can be used to do it. There are a lot of people which know how to work with XML (potential developers which may come up with very interesting ways to work with this kind of inforamtion), there are a lot of tools which allow to do various things with XML documents, and most importantly, the person which is willing to invest his time into this topic thinks he can do it better with XML than with something he has to invent/develop himself. >From a pragmatic point of view I like this. And it would be a pity, if such a feature would be talked down because a lot of people dislike the way it may be implemented (feel free to come up with a better implementation). Personally I can't come up with a better implementation which has the same public exposure regarding testing and feature-set needed of the tools involved, so I will shut up now. Bye, Alexander. -- I'm available to get hired. http://www.Leidinger.net Alexander @ Leidinger.net GPG fingerprint = C518 BC70 E67F 143F BE91 3365 79E2 9C60 B006 3FE7