xml in fptools?

[Lemmih]

On 5/15/06, Isaac Jones <ijones at syntaxpolice.org> wrote:
> Lemmih <lemmih at gmail.com> writes:
>
> > On 5/15/06, Isaac Jones <ijones at syntaxpolice.org> wrote:
> >> Greetings,
> >>
> >> I'm wondering if we've ever discussed putting an XML parser into
> >> fptools.  I'm asking because cabal-install would like to use xml-rpc,
> >> but it drags in a bunch of dependencies that aren't in fptools.
> >>
> >> What do other languages do:
> >>  * Python seems to have XML and XML-RPC as standard libraries
> >>  * Same with ruby
> >>  * Not java (shocking): http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/api/
> >>
> >> I guess that HaXml probably can't get into fptools because of license
> >> incompatibilities, but hxml and HXmlToolbox both have MIT licenses,
> >> and so could probably be put into fptools:
> >>
> >> http://www.flightlab.com/~joe/hxml/
> >> http://www.fh-wedel.de/~si/HXmlToolbox/
> >>
> >> What do others think?
> >
> > XML and xml-rpc are the wrong tools for cabal-install, IMO. Picking a
> > tool that isn't suited for the task will not result in anything good,
> > no matter how common and popular that tool happens to be. I only chose
> > xml-rpc because it was easily available, and it resulted in several
> > dirty hacks. Please, lets avoid enterprise, XML and managers in suits;
> > The /right/ tools are out there.
> > End of way too emotional rant.
>
> Care to elaborate with some facts or details that can help the rest of
> us make a decision?

Well, XML/xml-rpc isn't very well suited for transferring binary data
and that's pretty much the only thing cabal-install is interested in.
Using bencoding would be more efficient and not drag in any
dependencies. BEncoding is used by bittorrent and, hence, is
implemented in almost every language.

--
Friendly,
  Lemmih