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Title: RE: [xml-dev] XML should NOT be a new programming language
The fact that some people do want to describe elements of their data handling using an XML syntax, as far as I know, doesn't prohibit you from doing it in any other way, with the loops and conditions of your favourite programming language. Only problem, of course, is that then you have to do all the work yourself, while standards based syntaxes and processing gives you lots of stuff free.
In fact, XML is NOT used to validate, manipulate and transform other XML documents. As my esteemed colleague Jim Gabriel recently wrote in an article for XML Journal, there IS no such thing as an XML application. That work is done by parsers, XSLT processors and other applications written in languages such as Java, C++, etc. The XML is just used to tell them what to do.
This is way more powerful and maintainable than embedding transformations in code - do you want to be forced to recompile your code and re-release a new application next time either your input or output format changes or your transformation rules change? And the advantage of describing it in XML is that the same set of instructions can be understood regardless of the programming language - try using your little snippet of code below in a C application and see what happens. Embedding this aspect of the work in programming languages means reinventing the same wheel for everybody's favourite language.
The fact that IDEs do not yet adequately support this doesn't make it a bad idea, it just means the IDEs need a bit more time to catch up. Perhaps you could develop and release your own?
John
_________________________________________________________
John Anderson
CTO Barbadosoft
The XML Management Company
+31 (0)20 750 7582 / +31 (0)6 65 347 448 / www.barbadosoft.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Niels Peter Strandberg [mailto:nielspeter@npstrandberg.com]
Sent: 02 March 2002 16:23
To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
Subject: [xml-dev] XML should NOT be a new programming language
Why do we use XML to validate, manipulate, transform etc. other XML
documents, fragments?
I want to do my work in Java or another language, not a XML "language"
like XSLT, XML Schema etc. The XML "languages" contains a lot of noise
and duplicated information. Just try build a fairly large XSL
stylesheet, an it will fast be hard to read. My favorite IDE do not
support manipulating XML documents.
We have Java, C++ etc. We have if-else, while, switch etc. We can do
classes, compile ......... We don't we use them??
To me XML should be a part of my chosen programming language. No only
files on a network or filesystem.
I want XML in Java! Why not like this:
Stylesheet style = {
<XSL:STYLESHEET {
[xmlns.xsl = "http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"]
[version = "1.0"]
// Book
<XSL:TEMPLATES {
[match = "Book"]
<HTML {
<HEAD {
<TITLE {
name.equals("") ? "Hej,
Guest!" : "Hej, " + name +"!";
}
}
<BODY {
<CENTER {
<XSL:TEMPLATES
{ [select="title"] }
}
<XSL:TEMPLATES
{ [select="chapter"] }
<XSL:TEMPLATES
{ [select="appendix"] }
}
}
}
}
} // stylesheet
I use Apples Project Builder, and the indenting works perfectly, for the
code above!
Niels Peter
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