[Asterisk-Dev] WAS: click-to-call cleint NOW: XML Manager I/F str aw poll

[Steven]

On Tue, 2006-01-17 at 16:18 -0700, Colin Anderson wrote:
> Disclaimer: Not trolling. Cross-posting to -users to gague support.

It was a troll. And unfortunately I am going to feed the troll.


> >Parsing XML requires a hell of a lot more weight than parsing the 
> >current format.
> 
> Yes and no. Depends who's parser you are talking about. 

No it doesn't. XML by format is more verbose. So from the network
transport side, it is heavier. From the fact that you have to include
another library, it is heavier. 

> The important thing
> to remember is that XML parsers are completely platform and language
> independent. One of Asterisks' true strengths is that it will plug into
> *everything* given enough prodding.

And it has been prooven time and again with a little effort any language
and platform can talk to the manager. 

> The point is, you would not have to reinvent the
> wheel every time you wanted to I/F something to Asterisk.

You would still be reinventing the wheel with XML in as much as you
would still be writing the app that handles all the messages regardless
of format. The only portion you might not have to reinvent is the
connection layer but then there are enough libraries for that.

> >Tell you the honest truth, I just don't like XML.  Waste of bits.
> 
> I've read posts from OEJ (I think) along the same lines - he's an XML
> proponent, and Mark is not. He (Mark) feels it's too fat. I'm sure that the
> majority of the guys on -dev hate XML as well. However, XML is not going
> away anytime soon - aw hell, it's here to stay, forever. So, might as well
> hold your nose, and support it. My gut tells me if you took a straw poll on
> -users, an XML implementation would recieve overwhelming acceptance. This is
> something that *users* want. You know, the guys that *use* Asterisk. It
> would also open the door wide open for all sorts of crazy, interesting,
> unique, and cool implementations. And that's what Asterisk is all about. 

Do you think the developers of asterisk aren't users of asterisk? Unless
the users turn into developers, they don't exactly have a say in the
format and probably couldn't care about the format. Do you think the
average MS Word user cares how the document is stored or that it is
retrievable without problems. 

To add another reason why asterisk probably won't have a native XML
interface comes down to licensing. Right now the main asterisk tree
contains code that is either owned by Digium, Licensed to Digium for
free, or is covered under a free-er license for the developer than the
GPL. To add an XML parser, we would either need to find a suitable BSD,
LGPL maybe, or similarly licensed library or write one from scratch. 

So there is another wrinkle on top of the many(being more than a few but
otherwise undetermined number) developers don't want it thread.
-- 
Steven <critch at basesys.com>