[xubuntu-users] move a file from its location via gui

[Peter Flynn]

On 17/01/16 10:07, Chris Green wrote:
[...]
> It's still *awful*.  Compare it with a standard .conf file such as
> ntp.conf:-

I'd take XML *any* day over that kind of stuff.

> Apart from anything else editing an XML file is a pain because of all
> the </> characters *and* you have to enter keywords twice at the
> beginning and end of a block.  

You may have been misled (as many programmers are) into using a dumb
editor instead of one that understands XML syntax. No user should ever
have to type the markup characters, or even see them.

> No half decent programming language
> makes things so difficult for the programmer.

But XML isn't a programming language; it's a markup language. This is a
common misunderstanding in the programming community. I've even had
people ask me how they can get XML to do their math -- a bit like asking
someone how to write your thesis in C++ :-)

> XML, if it's needed, should always be hidden from the user/programmer
> by some sort of parser.

Absolutely, always. The user should never see pointy brackets: they're
for parsers and for people like me who have to deal with the dirty bits
inside XML documents. Any half-decent interface should hide them and
present a sensible layout. Unfortunately, no such editors exist yet;
even the (quite good) XML editors for authoring still demand far too
much foreknowledge. Maybe one day...

We should stop here...we're going off-topic...

///Peter