Re: proplist

[Matthew Mondor <mm_lists%pulsar-zone.net@localhost>]

On Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:57:44 -0400
"James K. Lowden" <jklowden%schemamania.org@localhost> wrote:

> To argue the merits of file formats in 2010 for anything more complex than
> /etc/hosts is to overlook 30 years of experience with relational
> databases.  You perhaps associate them with IBM and glass houses, but
> SQLite will change your mind in terms of speed and footprint.  

I think that one of the rationales for proplib(3) was to also be able
to optionally use it in the kernel, which means that for security and
stack size the format and parser/serializer should be as simple as
possible, while still allowing the necessary level of flexibility.
This means that most existing database formats and APIs could not be
used, unfortunately.

Another was probably so that it can be stored as a simple enough
flat text file format, so that configuration and property files
could be supplied and stored easily in a repository (I guess that a
series of SQL statements from a dump could have suited if this was the
only issue, however).  Support for an optional binary format then
allows to further optimize size and performance (a part which the
official source cannot do yet, however).
-- 
Matt