xml-dev - Re: XML-Conformant Programming Languages

["Steve Oldmeadow" <smo@jst.com.au>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Joshua E. Smith <jesmith@kaon.com>
To: XML Developers' List <xml-dev@ic.ac.uk>
Sent: 05/05/1999 8:47
Subject: XML-Conformant Programming Languages


> However, you cannot release a product to Jane Q. Public (even for free)
> which uses a "little language" and tell her she needs to write her
programs
> in Notepad.  She needs a tool to make organizing the constructs of the
> language easy.  (They call this "Visual Programming" and it's actually
> pretty cool when it's done right -- which is almost never, because people
> keep trying to put visual wrappers around glorified machine languages like
> Java.)

One thing you missed in your summary was whether DTDs can support what you
want to do.  I think you have a wonderful vision and I am sure it is shared
by many people here.  I just don't think a DTD is going to do what you want.
Hopefully with the new schema language we can start developing tools like
the one you envisage.

As far as "Visual Programming" environments go (especially for "non
programmers") I think it is invaluable to have the ability to step through
the code and see what is happening which implies an IDE rather than a simple
editor.

> <preach> Oh, and some of you have a pretty jaded view of programming
> languages.  Do yourself a favor and go learn LISP and FORTH.  You'll see
> that very useful programming languages don't have to be an unholy mess
like
> C, Java, Perl, and VB.  Check the back issues of Dr. Dobbs for a good
> article on FICL, for example. </preach>

To quote the Tao Te Ching "He who understands does not preach, he who
preaches does not understand" ;)  Seriously though, I would love to learn
LISP and FORTH unfortunately time is limited and there isn't much demand
where I am for LISP and FORTH programmers.

Steve Oldmeadow


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