Fwd: [xml-dev] Word of the day: upconversion

[Dimitre Novatchev <dnovatchev@gmail.com>]

Accidentally replied only to Roger ...


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dimitre Novatchev <dnovatchev@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 7:09 AM
Subject: Re: [xml-dev] Word of the day: upconversion
To: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>


      Where would you place the XPath expression in this spectrum:


     <------------------------------------------------->
       random         prose                         XML

                    upconversion --------->

The question is incorrectly formulated: you should not compare a
single XPath expression (a sentence generated by the grammar of XPath)
to "prose" which is type, not instance.


The correct question would be:

      "Where would you place XPath in this spectrum?"

The answer is easy:

  XPath is a deterministic language (using a context Free (CF)
grammar for XPath every given XPath expression has not more than one
parse).

On the other side it is well known that natural language is ambiguous
(non-deterministic) and thus any natural language sentence may have
more than one parse, and hence  more than one different meaning.

Therefore, on the scale of preciseness (disambiguousness), XPath is to
the right of "prose" and probably even to the right of XML (if XML is
considered out of the context of any xml schema).


--
Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev
---------------------------------------
Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence.
---------------------------------------
To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk
-------------------------------------
Never fight an inanimate object
-------------------------------------
You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what
you're doing is work or play
-------------------------------------
I enjoy the massacre of ads. This sentence will slaughter ads without
a messy bloodbath.






On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 5:59 AM, Costello, Roger L. <costello@mitre.org> wrote:
>
> Hi Folks,
>
> Recently I read an article [1] by Michael Kay and learned a fabulous word:
>
>    upconversion
>
> The word originates in the broadcasting industry, where it is used to mean the conversion of a low resolution image to an equivalent high resolution image.
>
> In the XML world, the word refers to taking unstructured text and adding structure (markup) to create a richer, structured document. Here's how Michael Kay describes it:
>
>   Upconversion is the generation of a format
>   with detailed markup from a format with
>   less-detailed or no markup, where it is
>   necessary to generate the additional markup
>   by recognizing structural patterns that are
>   implicit in the textual content itself.
>
>
> EXAMPLE #1
>
> Upconvert this fixed-field, comma-separated text:
>
>    Origin of Wealth, Eric D. Beinhocker, 2006,
>    1-57851-777-X, Harvard Business School Press
>
> to this XML format:
>
>    <Book>
>        <Title>Origin of Wealth</Title>
>        <Author>Eric D. Beinhocker</Author>
>        <Date>2006</Date>
>        <ISBN>1-57851-777-X</ISBN>
>        <Publisher>Harvard Business School Press</Publisher>
>    </Book>
>
>
> EXAMPLE #2
>
> Upconvert this prose:
>
>    Level 1 managers may sign off on purchase requests
>    that do not exceed $10K.
>
> to XML by mapping nouns to markup and adjectives to data:
>
>    <Request id="purchase">
>        <signoff manager="level1" LE="10000" />
>    </Datatype>
>
>
> QUESTION
>
> Consider the spectrum from random text to well-designed XML:
>
>
> <------------------------------------------------->
>  random                                       XML
>
>               upconversion --------->
>
>
>
> Suppose we place prose somewhere between random text and XML:
>
>
> <------------------------------------------------->
>  random         prose                         XML
>
>               upconversion --------->
>
>
>
> Where would you place XPath?
>
>
> For example, consider these three ways of expressing a business rule:
>
> (a) Prose
>
>    Level 1 managers may sign off on purchase requests
>    that do not exceed $10K.
>
> (b) XPath
>
>    not(purchase-request[number(cost) gt 10000])
>
> (c) XML
>
>    <Request id="purchase">
>        <signoff manager="level1" LE="10000" />
>    </Datatype>
>
>
> Where would you place the XPath expression in this spectrum:
>
>
> <------------------------------------------------->
>  random         prose                         XML
>
>               upconversion --------->
>
>
> Would you place it close to the XML side? Would you place it close to the random side? Would you place it to the left of prose? Would you place it to the right of prose?
>
>
> /Roger
>
> [1] http://www.saxonica.com/papers/ideadb-1.1/mhk-paper.xml
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-- 
Cheers,
Dimitre Novatchev
---------------------------------------
Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence.
---------------------------------------
To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk
-------------------------------------
Never fight an inanimate object
-------------------------------------
You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what
you're doing is work or play
-------------------------------------
I enjoy the massacre of ads. This sentence will slaughter ads without
a messy bloodbath.