On Wed, 24 Aug 2016 16:58:54 +0200, Frank Millman wrote: > Hi all > > I have mentioned in the past that I use XML for storing certain > structures 'off-line', and I got a number of comments urging me to use > JSON or YAML instead. > > In fact XML has been working very well for me, but I am looking into > alternatives simply because of the issue of using '>' and '<' in > attributes. > I can convert them to '>' and '<', but that imposes a cost in > terms of readability. >
are these files expected to be read/written by a human being or are they for your application to save & restore its settings? if the former then you probably need to choose a specification/format that was designed to be human readable form the start (such as the old .ini format) if it is primarily for your app then you need a format that efficiently & accurately saves the data you require, readability is a secondary (but still desirable) requirement for debugging & the rare case where a manual change is req. XLM is bulky with lots of redundant information & still not readily readable without extra tools. Json is quite terse but I find it quite readable & is well suited for saving most data structures pickle can save the data efficiently but is certainly not readable -- Even a blind pig stumbles upon a few acorns. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
