init: API

[Paul A Houle]

>No.  Everybody uses it because product managers come along and say we have to 
>have XML on "the box" or because programmers are too lazy to write a parser.
>
>Don't get me wrong...XML is *wonderful* for certain things.  Configuration 
>files for UNIX/Linux daemons is not one of them.
>  
>
    Just to add to the general bitch session,  I've seen XML add to 
mindless bloat in applications.

    I've recently had the misfortune of trying to get a modern GUI 
application running on Solaris 8,  which meant compiling about 20 packages.

    GTK depends on pango which depends on fontconfig which depends on expat.

    Other Gnome software depends on libxml.  So I end up having to load 
at least two XML parsers when I load my application.  I can easily see 
cases where I might end up loading three or four different XML parsers 
to support an application.

    Even people like Tim Bray have complained about the awkwardness of 
working with XML  APIs.

    When I wake up in a particularly evil mood,  I think about writing 
up an RFC for a proposal to reformulate Java in XML.  It would be as 
damaging as a worm that crashes the whole net -- I just see the armies 
of CEOs,  project managers,  computer book authors all marching to their 
doom...