Re: [xml-dev] M as the next XML?

[nico <ndebeiss@gmail.com>]

I think there is still a lot more to do in order to break the wall between documents and objects !

I dream of a language where we could do :

data.txt :
person { name = "john", surname = "dow" }

data = "load("data.txt");

That load creating both the squeleton of classes, and its instances.

And then access/modify data as if it was a document :

add(data, "//person[name = 'john'][surname = 'dow']", account = "54335");

All that expression "//person[name = 'john'][surname = 'dow']" as a string, that way that could be generically generated from a database, or a configuration file.

You could say that is already what is possible in XML, but still lots of developpers will ask you to have a real object tree, like :

var persons = data.person;
foreach person in persons {
    if (person.name == "john" and person.surname == "dow") {
         person.account = "54335";
    }
}

See all the marshaller/unmarshaller APIs you find on the web in order to do that ! I do not think I will ever understand why people are so fan of those generated POJO objects.

I only saw a bit about JSON, but it seems they made some steps in that direction.

Regards
Nico
http://debeissat.nicolas.free.fr/programming.php

2009/3/27 Simon St.Laurent <simonstl@simonstl.com>

Len Bullard wrote:

Revenge of the curly.  { and ; kick < and "'s butt.

More basic data types coupled a little more strongly to the syntax to
achieve a smarter pipeline.

Rick Jeliffe is right.  

I hope M eats the parts of XML's lunch that weren't very digestible (for XML) anyway.

Should be a good thing.

--
Simon St.Laurent
http://simonstl.com/

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