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

["Oleg A. Paraschenko" <olpa@xmlhack.ru>]

Hi Philippe,

On Thu, 30 Mar 2006 17:01:57 +0200
Philippe Poulard <Philippe.Poulard@sophia.inria.fr> wrote:

...
> > 
> > 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 _
>  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 :)

I think I remembered an essentioal property which is expected from a
virtual machine. VM is a target for at least one language. For example,
Java is compiled to JVM; C#, Basic.NET and others *.NET are compiled to
CLR VM (don't remember its name). You urgently need to compile something
to ActiveTags.

> 
> > 
> > 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.

Oh, it's an emerging topic. Added RefleX to my reseearch wiki:

http://xmlhack.ru/protva/xquery/index.php/BibReferences

> 
> -- 
> Cordialement,
> 
>                ///
>               (. .)
>   --------ooO--(_)--Ooo--------
> |      Philippe Poulard       |
>   -----------------------------
>   http://reflex.gforge.inria.fr/
>         Have the RefleX !



-- 
Oleg Parashchenko  olpa@ http://xmlhack.ru/  XML news in Russian
http://uucode.com/blog/  Generative Programming, XML, TeX, Scheme