[gmx-developers] libxml2

[David van der Spoel]

On 2013-11-10 20:58, Erik Lindahl wrote:
> Hi,
>
> One reason could be that we haven’t really started to use standardized XML input/output formats yet, although we’re heading there long term. I’m also not enough of an expert to say whether libxml2 is the best XML parser out there, since there are quite a few alternatives?
>
> If there are any specific new modules that would need it, doesn’t it make more sense to have those modules go through the normal code review (including a discussion of whether the proposed XML formats are nicely designed, etc), rather than separately making XML a hard requirement even if the current code doesn’t rely on it?
>
This is why I asked. I think we should refrain from adding more text 
only poorly documented files that are prone to errors. Therefore I used 
a XML files in this patch https://gerrit.gromacs.org/#/c/2659/, however 
Teemu pointed out that it does not compile without XML (since there are 
no ifdefs). So rather than implementing TWO versions of the code to read 
in the necessary data, we have to decide to make this obligatory now or 
not.

As regards compiling under windows (from the libxml2 website):

Libxml2 is known to be very portable, the library should build and work 
without serious troubles on a variety of systems (Linux, Unix, Windows, 
CygWin, MacOS, MacOS X, RISC Os, OS/2, VMS, QNX, MVS, VxWorks, ...)

It is distributed under the MIT license so I guess we could even include 
it in the source code as a backup. With the known portability and the 
license I don't see any reason not to. It comes pre-installed on Macs 
and Linux by the way.



> Cheers,
>
> Erik
>
> On 10 Nov 2013, at 11:51, David van der Spoel <spoel at xray.bmc.uu.se> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> we have decided a long time ago that for 5.0 libxml2 would be required.
>> If there is any reason why we should remain to be able to compile
>> gromacs WITHOUT libxml2, please speak up now.
>>
>> If no good arguments will be brought forward then I will change the main
>> CMakeList.txt such that gromacs will not compile without it.
>>
>> --
>> David van der Spoel, Ph.D., Professor of Biology
>> Dept. of Cell & Molec. Biol., Uppsala University.
>> Box 596, 75124 Uppsala, Sweden. Phone:	+46184714205.
>> spoel at xray.bmc.uu.se    http://folding.bmc.uu.se
>> --
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-- 
David van der Spoel, Ph.D., Professor of Biology
Dept. of Cell & Molec. Biol., Uppsala University.
Box 596, 75124 Uppsala, Sweden. Phone:	+46184714205.
spoel at xray.bmc.uu.se    http://folding.bmc.uu.se