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Our XML support isn't good enough to be helpful.  The reality is that our
XML support is an afterthought, so we're not getting those extensibility
and validation benefits anyway.

People want APIs that work.  As a Java programmer, I'm perfectly capable of
talking to XML, JSON, ASCII or HPSTR.  The one thing I can't interface with
is a buggy implementation.

Everything gets hidden in a library anyway.  We now have a Java library; I
believe it is the only statically typed & only XML binding out there.  As
more and more bugs are discovered in the XML, it becomes less of an XML
binding and more of a JSON binding.

As a concrete example, the namespace for extensions changed late in Essex.
 Some of the public clouds still use the old namespace, some use the new
namespace.  The easiest fix was to move those extensions to JSON.  Security
groups have whitespace problems with XML => JSON.  Floating IPs don't work
with XML => JSON.  Key Pairs don't seem to work with XML => JSON.

In contrast, while Glance doesn't work with XML, it took me 30 seconds to
say "use JSON for all glance calls", as opposed to figuring it out one bug
at a time (hours of work).


On Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 11:42 AM, Jorge Williams <
jorge.williams at rackspace.com> wrote:

>  I'm also a strong supporter of XML. XML does a good job of lowering
> barriers for a key group of clients, specifically those that work with
> statically typed languages.  It offers key benefits in terms of
> extensibility and validation.  I'd hate to lose it.
>
>  -jOrGe W.
>
>  On Apr 10, 2012, at 12:57 PM, Justin Santa Barbara wrote:
>
>  It definitely has improved - thank you for all your work;  I didn't mean
> to put down anyone's work here.  It's simply a Sisyphean task.
>
>     Either way, though, if I had the choice, I'd rip all of nova's XML
>> support out tomorrow…
>>
>
>  As a strong supporter of XML, who thinks JSON is for kids that haven't
> figured out that the Easter bunny isn't real yet :-)...  +1
>
>  Justin
>
>
>
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