• rumba@lemmy.zip
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    1 day ago

    We’d rather re-create reality where we know everything rather than taking the time to learn how to use a system someone else wrote.

    IT and DevOPS does this too.

    I worked with a group once that re-invented XML so that non-technical people could create text-based rules instead of writing code. But it ended up with a somewhat rigid naming structure with control characters and delimiters. The non technical people hated it more the actual XML they had used prior.

      • rumba@lemmy.zip
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        1 day ago

        LOL. not far off

        They started out with something close to YAML. As the project moved forward, they found out they needed to represent logic with interlinked sections. They needed section 3, point a to link back to section 1 point 3, sub point 2. So they toyed with some assembly-like operations. Then they needed some inheritance. They really just slowly re-implemented the common applications of xml one at a time, it just had less brackets and <> symbols when they were done.

        • ulterno@programming.dev
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          8 hours ago

          it just had less brackets and <> symbols when they were done.

          Hence making the parser more inefficient than XML?

          • rumba@lemmy.zip
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            4 hours ago

            It wasn’t without some advantage. The client hating it didn’t bode well though

            • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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              1 hour ago

              The client hating it just means you’re smarter than them and should press on to help them outgrow their ignorance. It’s a good sign.

    • Lovable Sidekick@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      I woulda tried them on JSON. As long as they use an editor that keeps track of nested brackets I think it’s much more natural than XML.

    • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      Re: the not-XML-instead-of-code thing. Eventually, this sort of thing turns into a programming language. It’s just like carcinisation. Or you wind up writing ever-more code to support the original design. The environment inevitably creates evolutionary pressure that only if/else and iteration logic can solve, forcing the design ever closer to being Turing-complete.