Re: Using XML in GDB?

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2006 00:57:44 -0500
> From: Daniel Jacobowitz <drow@false.org>
> 
> Does anyone have a good reason why GDB should not make use of this
> well-standardized format instead of inventing additional ad-hoc formats?

I'd like to see some spec, if you please.  It's hard to make up one's
mind without at least that, since XML is not the ideal format for all
and every type of communications.  It has disadvantages, some of them
were already mentioned in this thread: it's very wordy, and existing
implementations are not guaranteed to exist on every supported
platform (telling users to download and install additional packages as
a prerequisite to building GDB is a mild nuisance).

So I'd like to weigh these demerits against the advantages, and that
is only possible if some kind of specification for this specific
interface which we are discussing is available.

I've read your description from May (and just re-read it now), and it
sounds like the number of different entities we need to communicate is
quite small and their structure is simple.  So why did you come to the
conclusion that you needed something like XML to express that
interface?