Posts tagged with "xml"

I am using Ruby based DSL’s for a number of tasks in my current project. But one day it struck me - am I using the right tool for the job, could there be a better, more simple solution?

Some DSL’s I use are simply declarative and look something like this:

quiz "Let's ask stuff" do
  question "What is 1+1?" do
    alternative "2", :correct => true
    alternative "3"
  end
  question "Vad is 2+3" do
    alternative "1"
    alternative "Infinity"
    alternative "Don't know"
    alternative "5", :correct => true
  end
end

I find that quite readable, but it requires me to maintain code that handle the DSL. So I figured, what if I used YAML? It is simple, and using it would mean less code to maintain.

Tim Bray is my hero of the day. So many other people would defend their brainchild, especially a world conquering one, in any situation but Tim clearly stands above such behavior.

Any Damn Fool: “… we designed XML as a document format. When the world gleefully seized upon it as a data-packaging/RPC tool, that was OK, but I doubt you could get any of XML’s original designers to disagree with the statement that JSON, for example, has all sorts of advantages for wrapping up short-lived strongly-typed data.”

"

Joe Walnes seems to be a really smart guy. He has released XStream, which to me seems like the only XML serializing library you will ever need.