xml-dev - Technology Demonstration

[Peter@ursus.demon.co.uk (Peter Murray-Rust)]

Jon,
	This is in reply to your posting to XML-WG about the demonstration
in April.  You would be extremely welcome to demonstrate my JUMBO browser
at that meeting - it can be done either with a Java interpreter or simply
using a Java-enabled browser (e.g. Netscape 3).  All it needs is some
*.html, *.xml and *.class files which I will supply.

Java running under
Netscape/HTML makes for fantastic demonstrations - it's simply like 
running Netscape.  (I believe that the equivalent vintage of MSIE also
will work, though I haven't tried it.) I am sure that this technology can
be used extremely effectively for advertising XML - not that it need not 
use remote files so that you get no bandwidth restriction and need not be
connected to the 'Net.  I hope that we shall enough surplus CDROMs that
some demos could come available but they will represent Feb 22 vintage
whereas we hope to make more progress by then and the whole demo can be 
downloaded beforehand.  I'll give more details later.

JUMBO (at present at http://www.venus.co.uk/omf/cml/moltest.tar.gz)
is an experimental prototype for a technical browser with special emphasis
on molecular science.  I'll wait until people have had time to join the
list but here is a brief overview of the *generic* functionality it has 
implemented in full or in part:
	- XML parser (to be junked for NXP/Lark/Foo)
	- ESIS reader 
	- XML writer (doubtless to be revisited:-)
	- DTD classloader (i.e. knowledge of the ELEMENTs, but not yet
		content models or attributes)
	- MIME manager (primitive)
	- Tree GUI (Element-sensitive) for display and editing at the 
                element level
	- Import and conversion of legacy files (chemistry)
	- subclassing of elements appropriate to different DTDs
	- Element-based help and icons
	- Primitive bookmark facility within documents
These are all problem-independent (i.e. horizontal).  Within the technical
field there are some horizontal applications:
	- Table manager (linked to Elements)
	- Graphing tool (i.e. plotting)
	- Uni- bi- and multivariate statistics.
	- Glossary management (derived from ISO 12620 and in conjunction 
		with active groups).
I will omit the molecular classes (though they are fun and visual when it 
comes to a demonstration).  The technical DTD (TecML) can be used for
a wide range of non-textual applications including organograms and numeric
data in any field where the semantics can be resolved by linkage to
a glossary.  (Linkages to glossaries and elsewhere are on hold until the
white smoke emerges).

The current serious limitations are:
	- a DTD parser (to abstract content models and attributes).  Perhaps
		NXP provides this, Norbert?
	- a link engine
	- a proper SD search tool (mine is very crude)
	- an on-the-fly validator for an editor (validation against content 
		model)
	- an HTML renderer.  (I think I/we have to hack my own to inline the
		images, and hyperlinks)

P.

[This mail is also to encourage others to post.  I shall post some 
suggestions on how we manage threads, but I don't want to steer the discussion
in any pre-conceived directions.  Since this list can be an extremely useful
source of material for XML-FAQ, sticking to simple Subject lines will be
very valuable.]

-- 
Peter Murray-Rust, domestic net connection
Virtual School of Molecular Sciences
http://www.vsms.nottingham.ac.uk/

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