xml-dev - Re: Component Markup Language

[Robb Shecter <shecter@darmstadt.gmd.de>]

Mark Birbeck wrote:

> (OK I know I've cracked that one already - it's the end of the week. But
> really, if you want an XML specification for a user interface, surely
> HTML 4.0 is the one to choose. Then you could use a 'cool browser' that
> has an "XML GUI Interpreter" built in - like, well, IE4 and Netscape 4.)

Hi,

(I found the "HTML" comment very funny, btw. :)

I'm thinking of something much more heavy-duty.  Like, I want to support a complex user
interface that has many complex widgets, with flexible event wiring, that must make accesses
to back end data.  Something like the UI for a Bloomberg Box, or Microsoft Encarta.

This in itself is "easy", and typically done by having a platform-specific UI that retrieves
domain objects from a datastore/business logic middle tier.

More interesting and challenging would be to make the UI/backend split "higher up".  Do all
the layout work on the backend, and just send a platform-independent description of the UI
over the wire.

And -that- is what's led me to look for a Component Markup Language.

- Robb


xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev@ic.ac.uk
Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/ and on CD-ROM/ISBN 981-02-3594-1
To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message;
(un)subscribe xml-dev
To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo@ic.ac.uk the following message;
subscribe xml-dev-digest
List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@ic.ac.uk)