XML/XSD based configuration files.

[Frans Englich]

On Tuesday 07 December 2004 16:49, George Staikos wrote:
> On Tuesday 07 December 2004 11:45, Frans Englich wrote:
> > On Tuesday 07 December 2004 14:47, Waldo Bastian wrote:
> > > From the buzzword-department.
> > >
> > > See http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=94611
> > >
> > > Anyone interested in looking into this? I most certainly do not want to
> > > *switch* configuration formats, but I think it's a viable strategy to
> > > offer an alternative configuration format to our users with great
> > > marketing potential.
> >
> > ( 1. Don't get  language-religious; 2. Don't get religious; 3. I'm not
> > saying I'm right, and go for the big pictures)
> >
> > I have no particular opinion on the KConfig side, but the concept put in
> > a general perspective -- to use XML -- is very interesting. I think that
> > not using XML for anything data related(with exceptions) is equivalent to
> > hitting oneself with a brick. Unfortunately we still do it, and it will
> > take long before the "aha" goes through the audience at large, I think.
>
>     Do you realize how slow it is to parse this stuff relative to our
> current format?  I've been doing lots of Kst profiling lately and XML
> parsing is a huge factor for us.  I'm glad we don't use XML for KConfig
> natively.

As mentioned in the very beginning of my mail, I don't assert to use XML for 
KConfig -- I can't say anything useful and stay neutral. No doubt that with 
the flexibility and power of XML comes a notable performance impact.

As a side note, in the case of desktop files, the comparishion isn't XML vs 
key/value text files, but XML vs. a readonly, binary, database. In the 
imaginary XML based desktop environment, one possible speedup solution is 
similar to sycoca; a binary cache, for critical areas.


Cheers,

		Frans