XML DTD for the package configuration file

[ajb at spamcop.net]

G'day all.

Quoting Iavor Diatchki <diatchki at cse.ogi.edu>:

> this mail does not contain anything constructive, but i thought i'd post
> it just so that it doesn't seem that haskell users are indifferent.
> i sincerely hope we don't use xml (or any variation of it) in the
> haskell libraries.  good reasons of why not to use it have already been
> posted.

Well I'm personally in favour of XML as a general principle (mind you, I
get paid for it, so I'm probably a little biassed), however there is
absolutely no reason to use it here.

You don't want to invent a new syntax + parser if you can avoid it.  It's
not hard, but it's something that users have to learn.  XML is therefore
a candidate, but since interoperability with non-Haskell code is very low
on the list of priorities, this isn't a compelling argument in its favour.

Using a subset of Haskell syntax seems ideal.  It's simple, people already
know it, and it's easy to work with.

Cheers,
Andrew Bromage