[Oisf-wg-configuration_language] please do not write our own parser

[Jeff Dickey]

Good idea. I¹ve used YAML on several projects before (Python and PHP) and
found it to be quite good ­ both in terms of what it supports and in terms
of making the team think clearly about what needed support ­ if it was Œtoo
difficult¹ in YAML, we were probably (and in retrospect, generally) Doing
Something Wrong.

But that¹s really not the point. I¹m firmly with Scott¹s sentiments on this,
and would further say that we should devote a few refactoring cycles to
identifying and ruthlessly eliminating any NIHisms in our code base.
Especially if we¹re going to eventually air our dirty laundry through open
source,  anything we do that is yet another implementation of a core
infrastructure pattern should build on existing, proven code as much as
possible. If we say ³yeah, Project Q does 95% of what we need, but not
everything,² then, instead of writing a whole new implementation, either
work within the existing Project Q community or explicitly fork their stuff
to add ours.... since they¹ve already got most of what we need anyway. YAML
is successful even though it¹s yet another config language because it adds
value over and above the traditional alternatives ­ binary bit soup, INI
files or XML. Other successful projects that solve common problems can,
almost universally, say the same thing.

My two rupiah worth, anyway.

Jeff


On 22/9/09 24:52 , "Jason Ish" <ish at unx.ca> wrote:

> On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 8:36 AM, Scott MacGregor <shadowbq at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Writing our own parser is no better than what snort did, folks.. There
>> is no consensus on what snort "configurations" are capable with which
>> versions of snort.
>> 
>> I feel that YAML is a good direction.
> 
> We've stuck with YAML.  Nothing seemed as perfect as doing a custom grammar,
> but this came close enough.
> 
> Jason
> 
> 
> 
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