Re: XML libs (was Re: gconf backend)

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

On Sat, 2003-09-27 at 15:55, Dave Malcolm wrote:
> Well, Conglomerate handles at least some of these, and if it doesn't,
> please file bug reports. :-)  Though getting entities to work is a real
> pain.

Since you're writing an XML editor I might expect that. ;-)

> Is there a formal specification anywhere for the GMarkup language? 

Nope, only the docs. 
http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/2.0/glib/glib-Simple-XML-Subset-Parser.html

> Perhaps there's a case for a FreeDesktop spec for "RML" ("Reduced Markup
> Language"), or even "XMLWTRBOSLCR" ("XML With The Remaining Bits of SGML
> Legacy Cruft Removed").  Or something like that?

I think there probably is a case for it but I don't personally want to
have the resulting flamewars. ;-)

The ideal library would probably handle more of XML than gmarkup does,
basically only punting things when we see little hope of non-XML-focused
application developers getting them right.

> You might also want to have a look at this website:
> http://xmlsucks.org/but_you_have_to_use_it_anyway/

I essentially agree that:

 - XML is too hard for apps to get right 
 - we should try to use it anyway, as best we can

I would add:

 - sometimes it's OK to restrict the XML features you can use in a 
   particular context, as long as you fail gracefully
 
Havoc