Re: PROPOSAL: dot-proc interface [was: /proc stuff]

Craig Thrall
2001-11-04T23:20:09Z

> Problem: Could it be made simpler to parse from scripting languages,
> without making it less elegant to parse in plain C ?

Yes. At one point, somebody suggested XML. Now, as much as I hate the fact
that people somehow equate high-tech with tags, I think whomever originally
suggested it might be on to something. :)

Fact is, just about EVERY language out there has some sort of utility to
parse XML. There's expat for C, Perl and Python have libs, etc. We could
even write a proc DTD that could specify the valid data types.

There are two problems:

1. Performance - it's slower to go through a library that outputs XML than
do a printf("%d", pid) or the like.

2. Space - based on a little experience using XML as a transport, the space
used by the tags adds up.

3. Work - writing a good package to do this, and rewriting bits of the
kernel to use it. I'll volunteer my time.

Just a thought,

Craig