[bknr-devel] Problems with XML import/export, can't follow the tutorial

[Frederico Muñoz]

Hi Hans,

First of all my thank you for your quick reply, it seems that we both
are awake at odd hours ;)

2010/5/23 Hans Hübner <hans.huebner at gmail.com>:
> Hi Frederico,
>
> the XML import/export functionality has long regressed because it is
> unused, and I can't easily resurrect it.

I see, I sort of suspected that that might be a possibility, hence my
initial message. It's quite natural for some "code rot" to settle in
in areas that aren't used.

> I never used the import
> aspect of the XML impex facility and at some point switched to writing
> specialized exporters for those formats that I need (i.e.
> http://bknr.net/trac/browser/trunk/projects/bos/m2/export.lisp#L94).

Right, I'm not familiar with cxml (well, I'm barely familiar with
Lisp) but I understand the general idea.

> I'm sorry that the documentation and source code still gives the
> misleading impression that there is an XML import/export facility.
> I'm going to make a little update to indicate the state of this
> subsystem.

No problem at all, documentation in general lags a bit when code
changes frequently.

> Did you have specific requirements for the impex facility?

That's a good question actually... at this stage I do not have any
specific requirements. Without burdening you with details which aren't
of interest this is merely a "pet project", an idea that I had about a
strategy game, and which I'm using as a way to actually use Lisp a bit
more. As such I'm still in the early stages and do not have specific
requirements, or at least they are so vague that they are bound to
change drastically. I'm not a big fan of XML, although in recent times
I've came to at least recognise that it is useful as a way to exchange
data, and with templating adapting it to different output forms. With
that in mind the XML impex in the bknr documentation appeared as
something that could be useful, but I can also use something else
(like specialised importers/exporters, as you said).

I have a more general question though, which I hope you don't mind me
asking: in general terms do you have plans to maintain the bknr
datastore (I didn't yet investigate the web part of it, which I
understand is done mainly by reading the code), or is it something
that you see has having served its purpose? I'm only asking because
it's quite natural for developers to reach a point where they change
focus, even in terms of the language they use, let alone specific
frameworks. I've actually learned quite a bit by reading the bknr
documentation, and even listening to the audio of the 2008 Lisp
conference that you gave, so in several ways bknr has already been
quite useful to me, and I can only thank you in making it available.
Since I'm on the very early stages of my project this is relatively
important to me (relatively because this is not something that I do
professionally, unlike you, and as such not even guaranteed to be
finished).

Best regards,

Frederico