Re: [xml-dev] Generic XML Tag Closer </> (GXTC)

[<juanrgonzaleza@canonicalscience.com>]

James Fuller said:
> Melvin Chin wrote:
>> May I seek some opinions on this topic/proposal?
>>
>> =================================================================== To
>> extend XML spec just a little to permit use of "</>" (GXTC)
>> to be placed wherever it is permitted in the current XML spec
>> to place a closing tag.  The semantics will be to effect a
>> closing of the nearest open tag before the position of GXTC.
>> ===================================================================
>
> wondering what benefit to this other then some syntatic human orientated
>  sugar ?
>

There are several advantages. In my previous message i cited
[http://www.concisexml.org/]

<blockquote>
5. Closing tagname is optional
Not only does this remove unnecessary clutter, but when ConciseXML is used
as the syntax for dynamic languages, the tagname may not be known until
runtime, and therefore the closing tagname must be optional.
</blockquote>

> as a sidenote: have you checked out http://www.lmnl.net, its a good
> example of taking what is existing and achieving something useful.
>
> gl, Jim Fuller

Hum, liminal presents serious theoretical difficulties with the range
calculus doing very difficult can be a satisfactory extension of XML.

[http://www.idealliance.org/papers/extreme/proceedings/html/2004/Piez01/EML2004Piez01.html]

In fact, liminal is apparently a 'dead horse' (liminal was first presented
at 2002!).

However, i obtained very good ideas from liminal as the generalized
attribute model and the increase on difference between start and end tags
for improving readability. However i follow an alternative approach to
dealing with non-hierarchies because overlap generates many headaches.

Note that end tags are also optional in liminal _annotations_. End tags
are required in ranges because of ambiguity in non-hierarchical ranges.

In short,

XML 1.0: <textarea>hi</textarea>

liminal: [textarea}hi{] or [textarea}hi{textarea]

ConciseXML: <textarea>hi</> or <textarea>hi</textarea>

SXML: (textarea "hi")

CanonML (both versions markup and environments): [::textarea hi]


Juan R.

Center for CANONICAL |SCIENCE)