Re: Data table text I/O package?

[Georg Bauhaus <bauhaus@futureapps.de>]

Jacob Sparre Andersen wrote:

> Unlike Ada, XML is _not_ human-readable.

First, this has been claimed many times without even an indication
of why this might be so. Again, compare

  <Date year = "2006" month = "December" day = "24"/>

and

  Date'(year => 2006, month => -"December", day => 24);


Could it be that you just don't like reading angle brackets?
Do the <...> smell like C++'s template parameter brackets?
Again, habits? I won't say that XML *looks* nice, but it's purpose
is not to look nice, this is not a Miss Dataformat Competition
where you cannot win without rounded curves o.K. by the lates fashion.
XML is supposed to support identifing data in text form.

Second, XML is meant to be easily accessible using text toos,
not to be printed as novels. As such, it is not a language for
writing prose, formal or not.
This is why the relevant standards define a notion of rendition.

> And if I want an error-correcting file format which isn't
> human-readable, there are plenty to choose from, which are faster than
> XML.

Such as...?
ASN.1 perhaps?