RE: [Qemu-devel] Machine description, an alternativ using XML

[Steve Fosdick <lists@pelvoux.nildram.co.uk>]

On Thu, 2009-02-26 at 13:01 +0100, Torbjörn Andersson wrote:

> Very readable. But, I dislike the complex DTD, which needs to be maintained
> when new machine designs arrive. I believe that Classes and Objects, with
> relationships, is enough.

To me the complex DTD is, instead, an advantage.

XML already has a way of describing objects (elements) attributes of
those objects (attributes) and objects nested within those objects
(nested elements).

When you use XML in this way to natively map your data as Microsoft did
in the example you get more value from tools like the XML parser which
can do much better checking on the input.  The resulting file is also
much more readable for a human.

If neither the value from the XML tools or human readability are
important then why use XML at all?

Regards,
Steve.