As of right now, my vote is C and only XML if its shown to be *very* advantageous. I'd personally rather not mess with it.
Let me put a requirement forth then if we stay with XML.
It has to be easy to update the profiles. It's easy to create a new one, use a template. But updating one is a pain writing all those XML tags and custom <execute> commands and what not.
A client would need to have full XML editing support to a profile can easily be updated.
Alternatively, we can provide master profiles on the LFS server that we maintain and every client can sync the profiles (kinda like Debian does its update packages list process). But then it still has to be easier for us to update them.
If we were to go away from XML and to shell scripts, we can use functions like configure() make() install() and such, so clients still have the option to only run portions of a profile, not the entire thing front-to-back. This is kind of required, nobody wants to wait 20 hours to compile OpenOffice because the 'install' part failed. You just redo the install only.
-- Gerard Beekmans /* If Linux doesn't have the solution, you have the wrong problem */ -- http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/alfs-discuss FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/faq/ Unsubscribe: See the above information page
