xml-dev - 'Virtual' XML (RE: How far current XSLT processors will be useful in rea

[Leigh Dodds <ldodds@ingenta.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-xml-dev@xml.org [mailto:owner-xml-dev@xml.org]On Behalf Of
> Simon Wilson
> Sent: 28 March 2000 13:09
> To: xml-dev@xml.org
> Subject: Re: How far current XSLT processors will be useful in real
> applications?
>
[ quoted material removed]
> You could take this further and say that, due to the fact that
> next to nobody processes XML directly, but rather uses standardised
> API's/models (DOM/SAX) for processing the XML content, it should be
possible to
> 'virtualize' XML and access ANY hierarchical data via the DOM API.

This view, which essentially makes XML an 'interface' to your proprietary
data has cropped up before.

It ties in with the binary XML discussions, because in the same
way you'll be generating DOM trees/SAX events from non-XML encoded
data.

As I recall the arguments against taking this view were that it
deprecates using XML as the interchange format, which loses a whole
lot of other advantages.

Paul Prescod commented on this last year, and there was a fairly length
discussion. See that thread [1] and the spin offs [2] for more details.

[1].
http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail-archive/xml-dev/xml-dev-Jan-1999/0827.ht
ml
[2].
http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail-archive/xml-dev/xml-dev-Jan-1999/0866.ht
ml

Cheers,

L.

--
Leigh Dodds, Software Engineer       | "Pluralitas non est ponenda
http://weblogs.userland.com/eclectic |    sine necessitates"
http://www.xml.com/pub/xmldeviant    |     -- William of Ockham


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