[Gnu-arch-users] Re: File-tpye plug-in architecture for Arch?

[Thomas Zander]

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On Sunday 21 December 2003 14:14, you wrote:
> A generic XML diff tool will probably not perform sufficiently better
> than diff(1) to be worthwhile. A good domain-specific diff actually
> understands the file it's operating on.

If you say that then I must conclude you fail to appreciate what XML was
created for. The whole point of XML based files is to abstract this kind of
functionality from lots of different domains into a generic one.
In short; xml diff will work on _all_ XML files.

In another email Tom wrote:

> That you can XML-diff/patch a few sample OO files doesn't give you
> that strong guarantee of always producing valid output -- you need to
> actually study both the diff/patch algorithm and the OO format and
> then prove it works.  (And then you need to hope that future revisions
> to the format don't break that).

I agree with what you are saying but I'm afraid you missed a step that Michael
apparently made unconsciously.
XML files are basically a database in text form; the step to go from the
database-in-memory to the file on disk is one that has been standardized.
What you are confusing is the file format and the in memory object
representation that is created because of the file.
It is very easy to merge in memory object trees as if it were different files.
This is no different as to merging files and you have experience with merging
text files. No, the results are not always perfect; but they are good enough.

- --
Thomas Zander
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