I lol'd. This thread provided much amusement after a long week. =] Sorry for not being more constructive myself but can someone drill the devs for specific reasons (architectural etc) xml is the best solution and wikify the results? If I get a chance I plan on doing exactly that if I have some free time this weekend, don't count on it though. I don't think the point would be to defend the use of XML, rather to document it. I know first hand it's easy to overlook the power/usefulness in the beginning. Anthony Minessale wrote:
Thank you for the suggestion.
I am open to many suggestions about FreeSWITCH but the minimal way we use XML cannot be undone. I am not sure you actually tried FreeSWITCH very much if you think the XML is difficult to work with. Almost every config file that uses xml is still just name value pairs with a small <> around it.
<param name="minimal_xml_usage" value="true"/>
We actually get yelled at by people for not using it more and saying:
<maximum_xml_usage>true</maximum_xml_usage>
What you may be missing is the point of the XML. I suggest you read http://www.freeswitch.org/node/123 for a better explanation and a background.
Really once you learn how the dynamic XML stuff works you will be glad it exists.
I did design res_config for Asterisk which is still there today. Maybe you could get YAML working with a res_config_yaml, I'm sure they would appreciate it .
Whatever you decide, good luck to ya.
On Thu, Jun 26, 2008 at 9:14 PM, Diego Viola <diego.viola@gmail.com <mailto:diego.viola@gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi everyone -
I really love this project... I love the design you guys took with FS, I love the stability, the features, the openness of it, it's the VoIP platform I always dreamed of it... FreeSWITCH is what Asterisk should have been.
But I just don't like one thing: XML.
I also don't intend to create a flame war or troll with this thread, please take this as a suggestion of someone that really wants to use FS... XML is the only reason why I still stay with Asterisk, I just can't like XML, and I don't like Asterisk as well, I want FreeSWITCH stability, features, etc, but I can't like XML, not even if I try to, it's too slow to use/write, verbose and complex.
As a sysadmin point of view, I prefer parameter=value but I realize the advantages of XML (data serialization, etc), this is also why I don't use mod_dialplan_asterisk, because I think it's time for something better than INI files, but XML isn't for me, I'm a Linux/UNIX guy and I don't want a GUI either, I love CLI, but I want something simple to use, read and write, and I think YAML is the best of the both worlds.
I would like to have more than one option to configure FreeSWITCH, also, not everyone likes to do the same thing the same way and it would be really cool if FS gives this freedom to people...
I would really like to see YAML as a configuration option in FreeSWITCH, give me this any day and I swear I don't toch Asterisk _ever again_, YAML can be used for data serialization and it's more simple than XML, Ruby projects like Rails uses it.
Take a look here:
http://yaml.org/spec/1.2/ http://yaml.org/
"YAML™ (rhymes with "camel") is a human-friendly, cross language, Unicode based data serialization language designed around the common native data types of agile programming languages. It is broadly useful for programming needs ranging from configuration files to Internet messaging to object persistence to data auditing. Together with the Unicode standard for characters, this specification provides all the information necessary to understand YAML Version 1.2 and to create programs that process YAML information. "
Please consider it, I'm also willing to pay for a mod_yaml, other than this I really love FreeSWITCH and I think it's great, I will switch in a heartbeat if you guys add support for it ;-)