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Aaron removes xml2info as of u12 (in other words, we are screwed)
Lilwolf:
I know how you feel about XML. I work for a company who uses it as a network protocol... and then worries about speed. We have to optimize the hell out of everything... just to make up for XML's bloat.... plus forcing us to do all those string manipulations to read everything in.
But it is nice for adding things like seperating the controls. I bet uRebel couldn't have done it in the original -listinfo.... heck, one day I would love to see it seperate the players when possible.
That... and you should almost always use a SAX parser. It basically just reads the XML and calls methods based on whats next... DOM parsers kinda suck because (1) they use a SAX parser and then (2) store everything no matter if your interested in it or not and (3) it stores it in a standard / bloated mannor.... even though its already bloated...
I think they reason they removed the converter was just that it because broken because people didn't update it... and nobody wanted to maintain it. Sounds like a perfect side project for someone else though...
--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on July 16, 2006, 11:02:48 pm ---
--- Quote from: Lilwolf on July 16, 2006, 09:41:41 pm ---I have to say... you can also just parse the xml... not hard and its a lot more useful.
It has been the standard for 2 years. Took me about 15 minutes to parse it... another hour to replace the old parser with the xml parser. You shouldn't be afraid of XML... just wonder why people use it when speeds on the line.
--- End quote ---
I must be dumb or something. I haven't looked into it seriously but this evening I downloaded several xml parsers and example code. While I can parse any old piece of xml easily I can't get mame's listxml to parse. Is mame's output fully xml compliant?
For the record, I don't like xml because it's in-general larger and slower than virtually any format out there. Mind you the listinfo format is a complete mess, but considering the work was already done I never saw any point in converting. I still don't unedrstand why mame couldn't have outputted plain old text (think list info without all the stupid tabs and formatting characters).
--- End quote ---
Buddabing:
I rewrote xml2info back in '04 using my own flex/bison based parser. It was way faster than the expat library, and I predict it would be faster than any general-purpose parser.
Once v0.107 comes out, I'll update it for the new fields and it should just drop in.
youki:
As lot of of you , i hate XML. Didn't see any interrest in this format except it is something standarized.
Just a fashion effect , in few month a new "standard" will arrive and we will forget progressivly XML, and same thing few months later..etc..Etc.. Some guys are paid to create standard , so they have to produce a new one each time. And generally the new one is always more heavy than the previous... it is the life... in addition most of these "Standard" creator never even write a line of code.
I'm working for a big professionnal software company , I can say you , they produce new Technology just to be able to sell new producs and update. Not because there is a need for. Just a question of marketing after.
Almost all our lastest sofware uses intanscivly XML and others "new technology" , and believe me , all was far better before. (performance, memory usage, flexibility , required hardware..Etc..etc...). the only good point for us, is it more standarized than before.
Anyway , AtomicFe is not affected by this kind of problems. It is a choose i did from start , nothing specific to an emulator. I assume that lot of others good tools exists to create advanced game list, manage roms , etc..etc.. So it is not the job of Atomic. Atomic is a Front End, his job is to display a game list in the nicest way possible and run game on the most possible hardware configuration.
krick:
--- Quote from: youki on July 17, 2006, 10:34:52 am ---As lot of of you , i hate XML. Didn't see any interrest in this format except it is something standarized.
Just a fashion effect , in few month a new "standard" will arrive and we will forget progressivly XML, and same thing few months later..etc..Etc.. Some guys are paid to create standard , so they have to produce a new one each time. And generally the new one is always more heavy than the previous... it is the life... in addition most of these "Standard" creator never even write a line of code.
--- End quote ---
You sound like a bitter old programmer. ;)
XML is derived from SGML (as is HTML). SGML was an ISO standard in 1986 so it's not exactly a "new standard".
The benefit of a standardized way of presenting data is the re-use of tools and libraries that process that data.
With DOM SAX and XPath, you can do amazing things with data in XML format without having to write a lot of tedious (and error prone) parsing code.
You can also use XSLT to transform the XML data into other formats, even non XML formats like MAMEinfo.
youki:
--- Quote ---You sound like a bitter old programmer.
--- End quote ---
lol , i'm just consterned of crazy solution and standard they output nowadays.
I'm more nostalgic than bitter. I'm nostalgic from the time where coders knew coding.
We have machine faster than light , and we have program and technology slower and heavier than a turtle.
So when you combine both , you have softwares that runs at the same speed than a sofwares 15 years ago!
Do an experience, run windows windows 3.1 and ms word 2.0 , on a modern machine. ;)
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