Re: [Qemu-devel] Machine description, an alternativ using XML

[Andreas Färber]

Am 26.02.2009 um 14:24 schrieb Steve Fosdick:

> On Thu, 2009-02-26 at 13:01 +0100, Torbjörn Andersson wrote:
>
> > Very readable. But, I dislike the complex DTD, which needs to be  
> > maintained
> > when new machine designs arrive. I believe that Classes and  
> > Objects, with
> > relationships, is enough.
>
> To me the complex DTD is, instead, an advantage.
>
> XML already has a way of describing objects (elements) attributes of
> those objects (attributes) and objects nested within those objects
> (nested elements).

True, but XML itself does not allow for arbitrary graphs, only trees.  
Unless of course you start using RDF/etc., and then it's no longer a  
small expat dependency only.

As a user I do prefer easily readable XML formats, like Virtual PC or  
VMware may use, but I understand that such PC-only formats do not  
provide enough flexibility to customize a full OF device tree for all  
the platforms and devices QEMU supports. Having a frontend tool to  
generate a machine configuration from another config file format  
seemed like the best compromise when we last discussed the topic.

Andreas