Python declarative

[Rustom Mody]

On Sunday, January 26, 2014 10:53:32 AM UTC+5:30, Chris Angelico wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 26, 2014 at 3:47 PM, Rustom Mody wrote:
> > On Sunday, January 26, 2014 9:36:15 AM UTC+5:30, Chris Angelico wrote:
> >> Code isn't something to be afraid of. It's just text files like any
> >> other. After all, Python code is a config file for /usr/bin/python, so
> >> if you want to change what Python does, just edit its config file!
> > Windows stores configuration in the registry -- by fiat
> > Linux (posix) stores configuration in /etc + ~/.files -- by convention
> > Which do you think is preferable?

> Not exclusively, in either case. Many many things are config files of
> various sorts. The terms of the GPL specifically state that a GPL'd
> language does not enforce that code written in it is GPL'd, because
> it's just (to the GPL code) data files.

Ok so you are being careful and hedging your bets!!
[And Ive no idea what the gpl has to do with this]

If you see the 'Principle of Least Power here:
http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Principles.html
there is a spectrum of power from narrow data format to universal data
format to Turing complete programming language. And a strong case is
made for minimizing the 'power' in any application.

By decreeing things about the registry, windows solves many problems
that create unnecessary headaches for developers, packagers, uses with
the laissez-faire approach of 'put whatever you like in /etc.'  This
follows from the principle: "Anything goes" applied to /etc means messes
go in. Its harder to push messes into a dictat-ed registry

Steven's link
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/05/xml-the-angle-bracket-tax.html
linked to
http://nothing-more.blogspot.in/2004/10/where-xml-goes-astray.html
explains what the real problem is:

Xml, originally a document format, is nowadays used as a data-format.
This conduces to humongous messing, first for the xml-library writers, and
thence to the users of those libraries because library messes inevitably 
leak past abstraction barriers to cause user-programmer headaches.

tl;dr
Frank's principle: "Express little as possible in <programming language>"
is correct.
"And therefore XML is the solution"
is bad logic
[Unless <programming language> == "java" !]