[ros-users] [Discourse.ros.org] Why do we have package.xml instead of package.yaml in ROS2?

[tyagikunal]

I personally find YAML more readable than XML, and seeing as beyond the initial creation (in ROS 1), package.xml is maintained by hand, I find it weird that ROS 2 with a new custom build system (ament) decided to go with package.xml instead of package.yaml (or support for both like Log4j 2 but supporting 2 formats is hard).

I'm pretty sure I'm missing on something here beyond just compatibility with ROS 1. I know its a small (non-)issue, but I found that only ROS configuration and Dockerfile are not in YAML (personal anecdote, YMMV). Rest of all configurations (including parameters for nodes, CI pipeline) are in YAML. Even command line tools like rostopic and rosservice have their inputs and outputs in YAML format. What's the reason for this discrepancy?





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