Re: [xml-dev] Don't you need an XML Virtual Machine ?

[Philippe Poulard <Philippe.Poulard@sophia.inria.fr>]

Hi Oleg,

Oleg A. Paraschenko wrote:
> Hi Philippe,
>
> On Wed, 29 Mar 2006 13:46:56 +0200
> Philippe Poulard <Philippe.Poulard@sophia.inria.fr> wrote:
>
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > RefleX 0.1.3, a general-purpose XML Virtual Machine, is available here :
> > http://reflex.gforge.inria.fr/
>
>
> I used to utilize the buzzword "XML Virtual Machine" for my works, but now
> I'm in doubt. What "XML Virtual Machine" could be? What properties are
> expected from it?

I would answer the same for Java : any machine that could translate XML 
in something that can run on this machine

I called my executable XML "Active Tags" ; Active Tags just specifies a 
behaviour, not how you could implement it : if you want to write an 
interpreter or a compiler, translate XML to Java code (or any other 
language), load precompiled classes, or combine several of them, you're 
welcome.

RefleX is an implementation in Java of Active Tags. I find it close to 
the idea of what people would think of an "XML Virtual Machine" : a 
general-purpose environment that can perform programs made with tags.
The idea of "general-purpose" is more important than "tags" : a syntax à 
la XQuery could be a candidate, but XQuery is not a "general-purpose" 
language ; thus a pure implementation of XQuery can't be an "XML Virtual 
Machine", although it could be extended to.

Of course, all that can be discussed :)

> And are you sure that just using XML syntax for programming qualifies for
> the proud title of "XML Virtual Machine"?

As I said previously, I think it's not enough.

XML technologies like XML and XPath are used in Active Tags to achieve 
things that are not necessary related to XML.

> > In this release, you'll find tutorials for mapping SQL to arbitrary 
> > complex XML structures, and for experimenting the Active Schema Language
> > : express constraints on XML documents that you can't achieve with DTD,
> >
> > W3C XML Schema, neither Relax NG, and define custom semantic data types.
> >
> > Enjoy !

--
Cordialement,

              ///
             (. .)
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|      Philippe Poulard       |
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 http://reflex.gforge.inria.fr/
       Have the RefleX !