Re: [equinox-dev] Why xml for the manifest file ?

[Sankar P <sankar.curiosity@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 5:51 PM, Paul
Webster<pwebster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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I'll take care. Thanks.

> On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 8:10 AM, Sankar P<sankar.curiosity@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>  One
>> reason that I could think of is, to check for mandatory elements (like
>> say plugin-id) which can be easily compared by checking against a
>> schema etc.
>>
>> So, can someone explain me why XML is chosen and how it is beneficial
>> over a simple text file ?
>
> You've hit one of the largest reasons, schema.  It allows definitions
> and complex data types for each extension point to be published.  Now
> you can 1) generate documentation, 2) hand craft the XML necessary, 3)
> provide *extensive* tooling to help building the files.  #3 is really
> important.
>
> There are a number of other good reasons.
>

Okay. I got the reasons now.

I believe some more advantages could be like, to automatically convert
a xml file into an object (with the help of some serializer function)
and use it directly, etc.

Where can I get the schema files for the manifest files that one can
write for eclipse ? google results are favoring pages that talk about
auto-generating the manifest file by using an eclipse extension.

Thanks a lot for your explanation.

-- 
Sankar P