On 21/09/2021 13.49, alister wrote:
On Tue, 21 Sep 2021 13:12:10 -0500, Michael F. Stemper wrote:
On the prolog thread, somebody posted a link to:
<https://dirtsimple.org/2004/12/python-is-not-java.html>
One thing that it tangentially says is "XML is not the answer."
I read this page right when I was about to write an XML parser to get
data into the code for a research project I'm working on.
It seems to me that XML is the right approach for this sort of thing,
especially since the data is hierarchical in nature.
Does the advice on that page mean that I should find some other way to
get data into my programs, or does it refer to some kind of misuse/abuse
of XML for something that it wasn't designed for?
If XML is not the way to package data, what is the recommended approach?
1'st can I say don't write your own XML parser, there are already a
number of existing parsers that should do everything you will need. This
is a wheel that does not need re-inventing.
I was going to build it on top of xml.etree.ElementTree
2nd if you are not generating the data then you have to use whatever data
format you are supplied
It's my own research, so I can give myself the data in any format that I
like.
as far as I can see the main issue with XML is bloat, it tries to do too
many things & is a very verbose format, often the quantity of mark-up can
easily exceed the data contained within it.
other formats such a JSON & csv have far less overhead, although again
not always suitable.
I've heard of JSON, but never done anything with it.
How does CSV handle hierarchical data? For instance, I have
generators[1], each of which has a name, a fuel and one or more
incremental heat rate curves. Each fuel has a name, UOM, heat content,
and price. Each incremental cost curve has a name, and a series of
ordered pairs (representing a piecewise linear curve).
Can CSV files model this sort of situation?
As in all such cases it is a matter of choosing the most apropriate tool
for the job in hand.
Naturally. That's what I'm exploring.
[1] The kind made of tons of iron and copper, filled with oil, and
rotating at 1800 rpm.
--
Michael F. Stemper
This sentence no verb.
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