[CQ-Contest] XML File conversion for Contest Software

[Ward Willats]

>xml would be my preference for all log data.  it has the advantages of
>being a world wide supported data transfer method.  it has built in
>parsing, searching, import/export and all sorts of other tools for modern
>development languages and databases.  it has data integrity and definition
>capabilities way beyond adif or cabrillo.  it has flexibility way, way,
>beyond either adif or cabrillo or any other popular log format.  it can be
>used on virtually any modern operating system and some browsers actually
>will display it directly, though not always in the most friendly way.  the
>advantages today way overshadow the one disadvantage that i can see of the
>files being a bit larger than other formats that are hard coded into
>software or defined by punch card style columnar formats.
>

Amen. Amen. Amen.

For example, I wrote my own logging software in PHP for use on my web 
site. Because ADIF is the lingua-franca in the ham community, if I 
want to export my log to LOTW (say) I have to write my own MySQL to 
ADIF routines (which I have almost completed and will make available 
shortly).

An XML format would have let me pick from half a dozen parser/writers 
to do this and I would have finished this task in half an afternoon.

Plus, when you actually try to code to the ADIF "spec" you realize it 
is a half-specified hack that everyone interprets different subsets 
of. You wind up wishing for the XML-style "grammar" provided by a 
DTD, Schema or Relax spec so completeness and correctness can be 
verified _automatically_.

There is no telling what new applications would emerge from being 
able to easily incorporate XML QSO data into other applications. 
Propagation, contest analysis, band utilization patterns, impacts of 
BPL, the list goes on... As it is, ADIF and Cabrillo are ridiculous 
provincial walled-gardens.

-- Ward / KG6HAF