Userinfo

[Persson]

I was just wondering why dch++ store the userinfo in .xml files. Isn't it easier to store it in a database file.
I don't really know what benefits there is to store these things in i xml file.

Just a thought

[Sedulus]

well.. yeah, databases are easy. but xml libraries are also easy, so this is a choice of the programmer.
the cons of a database are that there would need to be a (multi-OS, because the hub runs on linux too) database server running when the hub is running. I do not know of any database that _everyone_ has running at all times.
xml is easy and unambiguous to parse, so you'll get the data as easy as from a database.
xml is text. so it's easy to convert a list of usernames from (for example) the stimbot user export to the dch++ access.xml. and the other way around, it would be easy to export the data to a different hub. (bara skämtar arne =) )

the only real advantage of a database (under these circumstances) would be that data I/O is much faster. but manipulating user and ip lists is, even for a large hub, not even close to the amount that would justify using a database, considering that dch++ keeps everything in memory and only reads at startup and only writes at +refresh (opcom).

is this answer satisfying?

[Persson]

Very satisfying =)