XML blows. It's a stupid, limited language parser that got so far up every spiky hair enterprise manager's ass that they want everything to use XML, because they think using XML means magically understanding anything. Not only that, but it's verbose and kind of half-assed, and has a ugly syntax.
A general BNF grammar processing standard tool would have been much better.
N:3:of Thrain
I:39:102:3
W:50:50:5:50000
P:0:1d1:0:0:0
F:ACTIVATE | SEE_INVIS | HOLD_LIFE | RES_CHAOS | HIDE_TYPE | LUCK
F:INSTA_ART | SPEED | RES_LITE | RES_DARK | ESP_ORC | LITE3
a:HARDCORE=THRAIN
D:A great globe seemingly filled with moonlight, the famed Heart of the
D:Mountain, which splinters the light that falls upon it into a thousand
D:glowing shards.
Name:
Anonymous2007-02-13 17:32
>>15
Teh fuck did you include me (>>9) for? I didn't write shit about encoding!
Tabs have been outlawed since they are treated differently by different editors and tools. And since indentation is so critical to proper interpretation of YAML, this issue is just too tricky to even attempt. Indeed Guido van Rossum of Python has acknowledged that allowing TABs in Python source is a headache for many people and that were he to design Python again, he would forbid them.
One word, the forced indentation of code. Thread over.
>>11
You became an hero. I'd like either:
1. A simple binary format for serialization of simple types (int, float, unicode string, raw bytes) with lists and dictionaries of them (with which you can create trees and anything you want, and allow you to ignore stuff you don't know or care about), that can be unserialized and serialized in almost all existing languages and it would be extremely simple to use, thus profitable.
2. A standard, multi-platform, real grammar processing tool that's able to parse any file (i.e. existing file formats) without restrictions (binary safe too) into said types in your language.
>>31
1. The great thing about binary formats is the freedom it gives you. Need to be able to quickly index some structure? No problem, just add a few extra pointers. Expect some parts of the file to be edited often? Add some padding etc around them.
2. You don't need this because there's very little need for complex parsing when it comes to binary formats. If the format is documented, writing code to deal with it is trivial.
Name:
Anonymous2007-02-14 19:06
>>8
No man, that's like dog shit vs. elephant diarrhea. One is manageable, and the other is barely manageable but takes a lot of work and is piles upon piles nastier than the less horrible alternative.
At least there's _some_ metadata in XML files. Sometimes there's too much, due to fugliness produced by the system-in-a-system effect.
Name:
Anonymous2007-02-15 9:08
<?xml?>
<text>I'm a rebel weeeeeee
</paragraph>
<thread>
</over>
Name:
Anonymous2007-02-15 13:08
FORCED CLOSED TAGS OF SYNTAX THREAD OVER
Name:
Anonymous2007-02-15 14:10
At least there's _some_ metadata in XML files
yeah, more metadata buzzword. data and metadata and metametadata is the same crap: DATA!!! use binary and shut up. key=value is already data AND fucking meta-data, and if you want more fucking meta-crap, use metacrap=metavalue.
Name:
Anonymous2007-02-15 14:18
>>39
lol moron cant comprehend the idea of a self documenting syntax.
Name:
Anonymous2007-02-15 14:40
>>1,5
For single lines of text I much prefer using attributes instead of full tags. In this case it doesn't make much of a difference:
Much more human readable and writeable. I use human-written XML input in some of my projects and I much prefer writing things this way.
Name:
Anonymous2007-02-15 15:08
>>40
What's so awesome about Haskell is how the code is completely self-documenting, you don't have to write any comments at all! In fact, the only comments I add to the production systems are irrelevant funny quotes from books and movies.
You can make XML more awesome but adding more Xs. Remember, Xs are cool. So XML -> XXX
Name:
Anonymous2007-02-20 16:53 ID:o2PuWtE+
>>67
You gave me an awesome idea! Let's do XML over XML, for more enterprise-ready parsing and universal data sharing! For example, <a href="dicks">...</a> becomes: