Opinions on SMF

[John Marino]

On 9/9/2013 23:57, Tobias Weingartner wrote:
> "It uses XML, which is bad because I don't understand it" is a very
> reasonable argument.  Especially if a significant portion of your
> customers/users say the same thing...

You're talking generically, which is fine.
However, this is a specific case that has these characteristics:

1) The XML manifests are usually seen once.  It's not something you tweak.
2) Manifests are something that one person creates, then everyone uses a
copy of it.
3) Frankly, even if you had to edit it with vi, emacs, whatever, its not
challenging.  All these folks that equate reading XML to third order
differential equations are being more than a bit dramatic.
4) The code is written, proven, and in use for years (apparently no
sysadmin died in the process)
5) XML is parsed faster than YAML or JSON.  It's superior that way.
Maybe we are talking milliseconds here but...

> Note, I didn't say you could not change it from what is there now, but
> changing it to something that less people understand is definitely a
> valid issue imho.

Catering to people you don't understand is why the US education system
is where it is today.  No sysadmin left behind?

All that being said, if somebody absolutely wants to rip out proven and
working code XML-based code and replace it with YAML-based code (and
assuming the manifest schemas support it) then perhaps it could be done...