Re: [computer-go] SGF parsers

[Paul Pogonyshev <pogonyshev@xxxxxxx>]

Mark Boon wrote:
> > I don't see how this is particularly impractical.  Basically, using XML
> > is impractical on its own unless you either want to use an existing parser (not
> > critical since there are SGF parsers available) or want to make data available
> > in generally-understood format (personally, I don't see much advantage of XML
> > here, I can't think of a useful task that a general XML program can perform
> > with go game records.)  300 closing tags is just a side-effect of
> > using XML.
>
> Maybe I'm being a bit of a purist here. First of all I think it's
> impractical because it destroys human readability.

Frankly speaking, I seriously doubt XML game record would be readable
even without nesting up to level 300.  Of course you can read it in
principle, but (for me) it seems so difficult, that I cannot imagine
another need for manual editing of game records other than debugging.

> [...]
>
> You say SGF parser are available. So why is it then that just about
> everyone on this list seems to have built his own?

Not speaking for everyone, but for me it was just interesting to
write my own.  And I do heavy optimization because it is interesting,
not because I think they are very important (they _are_ important,
but not very.)

Unless I'm mistaken, you have been already proposed with a few options
of already existing parsers.

In any case, XML has to be interpreted even after parsing.  That seems
to be not much easier than a simple SGF parser.  But maybe the major
reason why I don't like XML in place of SGF is compatibility.  While
almost any more or less complete Go program out there understands SGF
and there are really many game records in SGF, this is certainly not
the case for XML.  Switching formats and burying compatibility is not
justified for me, especially as I don't see significant advantages of
XML.

Paul

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