Announcing a Preview of XString, an XML technology - XML as a String

["William Gilreath" <wgilreath@gmail.com>]

Announcing a Preview of XString, an XML technology - XML as a String.

I've
created a means to efficiently encode XML as a flat string, which I
term XString. I've written a paper, put some examples, and have created
an online demonstration that can process XML into XString.

My goal in annoucing/previewing the technology is to get comments and feedback from others to inspire and guide future efforts.

Online at www.williamgilreath.com/xstring
.

Synopsis:

XML requires a parser to process and tree
structure to represent the markup. XML by its very nature creates a
verbose, bloated document.  Such a big, unwieldy structure is complex
to handle. 

XString is an efficient encoding for XML as a long string,
but not as large, complex, data structure. XString compresses XML into
a more compact representation, and one that is manipulated as a string.
The syntax style is similar to XPath, so familiar and not completely
unusual in representation.

The five major points about XString:

XString is XML just encoded differently.
XString is similar in syntax to XPath so familiar. 
XString is more compact (compressed) in representation so less data bloat.
XString is useable where ever XML is used, such as SOAP or XHTML.
XString allows XML to be embedded in XML. 

Quick-and-dirty example of XML and XString:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<duh:ROOT ATTRIBUTE="VALUE" xmlns:duh="http://www.w3.org/noduh">
   <duh:CHILD>text</duh:CHILD>
   <duh:EMPTY EMPTY_ATTRIBUTE/>

   <!--comment-->
   <?processing instruction?>
   <![CDATA[function nop(){}]]>
   <duh:NIL></duh:NIL>
</duh:ROOT>

XString = /duh:ROOT+7@ATTRIBUTE=VALUE@xmlns:duh=

http://www.w3.org/noduh/duh:CHILD+1'text/duh:EMPTY+0@EMPTY_ATTRIBUTE-comment?processing instruction[function nop(){}/duh:NIL+0


Cheers! My best,

Will Gilreath
wgilreath@gmail.com
will@williamgilreath.com