Re: [xml-dev] Transformation of RelaxNG syntax into presentationof requi

[Rick Jelliffe <rjelliffe@allette.com.au>]

Chin Chee-Kai wrote:
> Interesting idea there.  If it is successful, it might open up a new 
> chapter for programming.
>
> While it is probably "obvious" that writing variables and function 
> names in Chinese is "obviously" not workable with present ways of 
> representing source code, we should remember that variables and 
> functions are basically abstract objects which form the elements used 
> in the logic of the programs.  
Oh, I don't mean that Chinese shouldn't use Chinese variable names, or 
Chinese tags for markup. I am more interested in the international 
cooperation aspects at the moment.

> That their appearances in almost all present-day programming languages 
> are integrally tied to their English-spelling tokens could still be 
> made historical if a new "pure logic" form of representing these 
> abstract structures could be constructed, and keeping the "names" of 
> variables and functions  as multiple multilingual descriptions.
I know Japanese use Japanese regularly. The languages that don't provide 
good I18n for langauge tokens do not do well in non-Latin countries, is 
my impression.
> Could XML-based representation be possible (just thinking aloud)?  It 
> seems to have already the capability to "hang" multiple multilingual 
> descriptions off logical DOM nodes...  Rick, how'bout a trial XML-C 
> programming language?
ISO DSRL allows renaming of element names and attributes (and 
enumerations) to allow localized versions of XML documents.  I don't see 
how China's UOF could become an international standard (which is being 
suggested) without that. Certainly there could be a similar renaming 
utility for programming languages. I suppose for Java and languages with 
run-time access to types, you would also need to consider about renaming 
the classes etc inside the byte code libraries.

Cheers
Rick Jelliffe