Isaac will surely correct me in case I got this wrong, but I thought the XML format is meant to be _one_ possible representation of the Haskell data types, which constitute a "package". If you prefer to write Haskell syntax, just do. Dumping your data into an XML file takes _one_ function call with HaXml.

The important part is the _internal_ data format. Whether these records are written to disk as XML, ATerm, RPM specs, Gentoo ebuilds, or Microsoft Word documents does not matter.

Absolutely. I don't think the storage format for the package configuration should receive any attention at all, unless library writers are expected to write package specs in that form, and it is my understanding that they're not (correct me if I'm wrong). The storage format for the package config is hidden behind the Distribution API, is it not?

Why is there so much excitement about this issue? :-)

Because it is a bikeshed discussion http://www.unixguide.net/freebsd/faq/16.19.shtml Cheers, Simon