[XML-SIG] XML appropiate for config files of a xml processor?

[Stephan Tolksdorf]

Hello,

this a design question not directly related to Python.

I'm writing a small homegrown xml processor which is mainly
intended for transforming xml files to html.

At the moment it is configurable by config files written in xml.
But these config files are not easy to manually read or edit as you
have to escape <,>,".
For example a mapping for a xml-tag could look like
this:
<tag xml="example">
     <start>&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;</start>
     <end>&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</end>
</tag>

The processor should now transform
"<example>test</example>"
into
"<p><b>test</b></p>".

Obviously you have to use a special XML-Editor to edit these type of
config files.

So, would you say this is an acceptable drawback in comparison to the
flexibility and ease of use of xml as the config file format?
Or would you say one should use a custom format for these config files?
Maybe you could point me to a config file format actually in use with
such type of processor?

I'd be thankful for your answers.

Best Regards,
  Stephan Tolksdorf