From: Bruce Williams Date: 2003-03-19T13:35:49+09:00 Subject: Re: XML too hard (YAML opportunity?) This is the YAML advocacy mailbot at host codedbliss.com. I'm sorry to have to inform you that the message you submitted to ruby-talk did not meet XML frustration standards. For further assistance, please send mail to the small group of YAML supporters within the Ruby community. If you do so, please include this problem report. The YAML advocacy mailbot --- (all in good fun) Now, seriously... I totally see what you are getting at-- and I agree with the 'apples-and-oranges' comparison for the most part. I also recognize that a person's choice of markup formats is mostly matter of taste. Although I've used XML for years, I prefer YAML for the vast majority of projects I work on internally (one of which has a $300,000 budget) because it is less hassle than XML (using a SAX/DOM parser to turn documents into usable data)-- but also simply because I like it. This, of course, is the same reason why I use Ruby. If I cared a great deal about interoperability (at the current time) I suppose I'd use Perl (esp in my work environment). I love the idea of a common standard-- ie: XML. At the same time however, I don't mind using something else when I feel it's a more elegant approach for the project I'm handling. The fact that YAML is used in very few public apps/libs (FreeRide, tomslib) right now doesn't matter to me. Perhaps this is a failing. // Bruce -- author: Bruce R. Williams url: http://codedbliss.com irc: { nick: iusris, channel: [ruby-lang,yaml], server: irc.freenode.net } quote: > It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.' -- Samuel Adams