[Mimedefang] Reading/writing XML config files

[Les Mikesell]

On Sun, 2006-11-05 at 15:15, Philip Prindeville wrote:
> >
> >Why do you want to use XML?  IMO, it's a solution looking for a problem.
> >

> Anyone else have anything to add to this?

There are 2 advantages of xml.  One is that you can use a
generic parser even in languages that are strongly typed - this
isn't all that important for perl. The other is that you can
run a parser independently of the program to tell you if you
have a syntax error, and some editors know automatically.
This is a nice touch compared to the usual text config file
and matching program that just refuses to start or crashes
if you make a syntax error and have no way to check other
than attempting to restart.  And then you are down until you
figure out what you did wrong.  There are other ways to
accomplish this, like webmin forms that must be kept in
sync with the program itself or adding a 'test' option to
the program that can be used before a restart, but xml lets
you do it generically with the permitted types and value
ranges specified in a schema.  After you've learned to be
very careful yourself you might forget about this problem.
If you need a reminder, have someone else edit your critical
program config files with a free form text editor...

-- 
  Les Mikesell
   les at futuresource.com