xml-dev - RE: IDL?

[David Megginson <ak117@freenet.carleton.ca>]

Peter Murray-Rust writes:

 > >1) (My suggestion.)  A pre-DOM interface, defining the events returned
 > >   by an XML parser, and providing enough information to build a DOM
 > >   tree (PIs, attributes, elements, data, DOCTYPE declarations, etc.).
 [...]
 > By "pre-DOM" I assume you mean:
 > 	- valid only until the DOM comes into effect
 > 	- (possibly) a subset of DOM functionality.

Actually, I am using it in a linear-processing model (you must view
this with a monospaced font like Courier):

* David's Model:

  PARSER --> SAX-J --> DOM --> [tree-based user application]
               |
               --------------> [event-based user application]

In other words, a DOM builder would be just another an event-based
SAX-J application.

 > >2) (Tim's suggestion.)  A post-DOM interface, for people who don't
 > >   want to learn the complexity of the DOM, and providing only the
 > >   minimum possible information (elements, attributes, and data).
 > 
 > By "post-DOM" I assume you mean "will not be onsoleted by the DOM", rather
 > than "cannot be put into operation until the DOM.

In this case, I am using a slightly different model:

* Tim's Model:

  PARSER --> DOM --> SAX-J --> [event-based user application]
              |
              ---------------> [tree-based user application]

In other words, SAX-J would be just a simpler event-based API for the
DOM.

I don't see a very pressing need for the latter -- tree structures are
familiar to coders, whether or not know anything about XML -- but I
would be happy to implement it if requested (I do not want to exclude
PI's, however, since that will exclude the possiblity of using
architectural forms and other standards working on top of XML).

Is this what everyone else is expecting?


All the best,


David

-- 
David Megginson                 ak117@freenet.carleton.ca
Microstar Software Ltd.         dmeggins@microstar.com
      http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/dmeggins/

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