[bhaak]

Linus' adversion to XML explains also why parsing git's output is so abysmal inconsistent.

Subversion has a really good XML output for its log command which is a joy to use (and that's something to say if you work with XML) whereas with git you always have ugly format options that are most of the time underdocumented.

[davvid]

I disagree. It's actually quite simple, and fast.

Git's output was designed in the Unix spirit; you can parse it very quickly without needing a parser toolchain.

It's also extensively documented: git help log, etc