From: James Britt <james_b@...>
Date: 2005-03-30T04:22:18+09:00
Subject: Re: Java for Rubyists

Lyndon Samson wrote:
...

>>
> 
> Something else I find interesting. The hatred towards non programmatic
> configuration files.
> 
> Programmatic configuration is great for programmers, but where would
> the average application user be without simple, hard to mess up
> configuration, like sendmail.cf for example :-)
> 
> Or perhaps the bile is directed only at the overly verbose XML?

Certainly seems so, at least for some.

Angle-brackets and explicit begin-end markup are bad, 
significant-indentation is good.  Unless the significant-indentation is 
part of a programming language, then it's bad, and explicit begin-end 
markup is good.

Whether XML is "overly verbose" may depend on how you interact with it. 
For people who criticize it for leading to carpal tunnel syndrome, I 
would invoke the "Eclipse defense" [0]: Use an editor, such as vim with 
an XML plug-in, that does auto end-tag completion or otherwise assists 
in editing and rendering XML.

Whether one is doing XML push-ups or YAML squat thrusts may not be the 
real issue, but instead whether the people responsible for configuration 
have a means to describe their intent with a minimum of fuss.   For 
some,  that may mean using the same language the program is written in; 
for others, verbose (but easily validated) markup is the better choice.


James

[0] So-named in honor of those who justify assorted Java grievances by 
insisting that these issues go away if you assume a sufficiently 
powerful IDE.