From: "Cabrera, Alan" adc@multex.com
Two good points. Thanks for the quick response.
My response would be that for every platform, there usually is an XML/SAX/DOM library so, lexing, parsing, character encoding, would automatically be taken care of. These libraries are quite easy to use; have you ever tried to read someone else's lexer/parser, much less debug it? Using XML would encourage implementations across the many OS/language platforms while also supporting internationalization.
Extensions could be handled with namespaces. You don't have to worry about issues such as newlines/CR.
I think that many implementation issues would be solved using XML.
Regards, Alan
Alan,
Those are good points, but I don't think this is about rewriting GTP or dumping it for something else.
The only issue we are considering is what the commands should be, not the protocol itself. That's already in place and simple.
Another point is that this already in place protocol is designed to be really easy to read and debug. Even though XML is human readable by design, in actual practice it is is not that easy for humans to parse.
(Actually, GMP is easier for computers to parse, GTP is easier for humans, and XML is hardest for both! The fact that you need a library to parse XML should tell us something!)
Don