[gmx-developers] libxml2 versus JSON

[David van der Spoel]

On 12/05/16 14:16, Erik Lindahl wrote:
> Hi,
>
> While I’m all for JSON, the format per se isn’t critical. What is needed is for somebody (or a couple of people) to sit down and start working on a larger framework for writing and reading all sorts of data, and how to handle this in an abstract way. Then the actual file format is simply a module that can be replaced if we ever want to change it.  But, this will require volunteers!
>
This is what we discussed in the gerrit patch, to have a module on top 
of it that would form the API for the rest of the code. For me this is 
the most important thing to decide in gmx development in the near future.

> Just picking a format and then having dozens of modules all fire away with creating their own data fields directly in that format doesn’t bring any more portability than using raw text files, IMHO :-)
>
> Cheers,
>
> Erik
>
>
>
>
>> On 12 May 2016, at 12:40, David van der Spoel <spoel at xray.bmc.uu.se> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> with the developer meeting coming up next week I would like to once again bring up the issue of what file format to use for database files. We have discussed this for over ten years and not having a decision is stopping innovation.
>>
>> I propose we vote on it at the meeting next week if we can not reach concensus. Personally I am beyond caring which of the two as long as we make a decision - now we have nothing.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> --
>> 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