On Jun 3, 2011, at 9:23 AM, James Weir wrote:
Reading through the thread, I completely agree with the reasons why from a technical perspective OpenStack would wish to support JSON over XML. I do prefer JSON, however, as George (Reese) mentioned there are a lot of people still wishing to parse XML. To continue OpenSTack adoption, supporting XML will only help.
I'm not sure how convincing this argument is. It is true that by supporting an additional X, we expand the potential adoption pool. But that is contrary to most open source development: if someone wants a particular feature, they can contribute the code to support that feature. Conversely, if a big company were to say "We'd use OpenStack if it supported XML, but since it doesn't, we'll use something else", then I'm pretty sure that having that company on board would not be much of an advantage. I'd much prefer to focus our efforts on the people and companies who are willing to contribute than those who need everything done for them.
IMO, we shouldn't do anything that would preclude the support of XML in APIs, but we shouldn't hold up development for it. If someone comes along who sees the overwhelming advantage of OpenStack but who also needs XML APIs and would be willing to help develop that piece, then we should support them in their efforts. That's much more in line with the open source development model.
-- Ed Leafe
