[Rhythmbox-devel] XML?

[Jens Knutson <jensknutson yahoo com>]

I just built RhythmBox CVS, and I have to say I'm damn impressed.  Once
stabilized and fully optimized for speed, I'll FINALLY be able to DELETE
XMMS FOR GOOD!!!  BWAHAHAHAH!!!

*ahem*...  sorry about that.

Anyhow, I did have one question.  In the interim while RB was being
retooled for the .60 release, I've been using Jamboree.  It's missing a
lot of features (as is the authors' intent), but it does have one thing
going for it: it's pretty damn fast, especially considering that my
library is 4700+ vorbis files large.  It's considerably faster than RB
CVS (as of today) for loading time, faster to import files, and a bit
faster for browsing my imported music.  This could be because it's just
focused on being lean, not feature-filled, but I can't help but wonder
if their database implementation has something to do with it.  So, I
humbly and respectfully submit the following:

Why is RB using XML instead of a normal database system?  I'm not
condemning anything, since I don't know all the answers here, but a
regular database system would seem to make a lot more sense, and would
probably be a lot faster... (if for no other reason than parsing a 2.4MB
XML file has *got* to take longer than a 1.1MB database, just from an
I/O standpoint)  On the other hand, I might be totally confused/just
plain wrong, so feel free to set me straight - I'm just trying to
understand the rationales for this stuff.  Can anyone comment on this?

Thanks!

 - jck

-- 
"The bugs in Sawfish, and its greater configurability, are not
orthogonal/unrelated facts"
-- Havoc Pennington