Re: [xml-dev] Feasibility of "do all application coding in the XML langu

[Robert Koberg <rob@koberg.com>]

On Dec 1, 2008, at 10:58 AM, Michael Kay wrote:
>
>> But again, why would anyone sane want to do all of their
>> application coding in specifically XML-oriented languages?
>
> If all the inputs and outputs of the application are in XML, and if  
> the
> processing is within the capabilities of those languages, then why  
> would you
> want to do anything else?

Portability. I may be focusing too much on XML databases and webapps,  
but that seems to be a dominant theme in the XML webapp world. Yes,  
you can write a webapp with just XQuery, but you have to pick your  
processor (and in some cases the app server). If you want to use an  
XML DB to gain all the benefits there, then you might pick eXist or  
MarkLogic. Each has its own functions for getting a request parameter,  
session state, text searching, etc...

JSPs/Servlets/Filters can be dropped in any compliant servlet  
container. XSLs can be processed by any compliant processor. If you  
don't use container/processor specific features (which you mostly  
don't need), you are pretty safe. XQuery 'templates' are basically  
processor specific due to seeming need for redundant custom functions.  
And, there is no ability to find if your processor has a particular  
function, so it makes it even more difficult to write for multiple  
processors.

best,
-Rob