Re: [xml-dev] XML Redux

["Pete Cordell" <petexmldev@codalogic.com>]

Original Message From: "Michael Kay"
> So we might have
>
> {  authors: [
>       {name: "Michael Kay", affiliation: "Saxonica"},
>       {name: "Liam Quin", affiliation: "W3C"}
>    ]
>    abstract: <para { style : "bold" }>Here be some dragons</para>
>    content: <section { numbers : [1,1,2] }><para>...</para></section>
> }

I like the direction of this.  I see a slight problem when you don't want
your marked up text to start with markup.  i.e. you want:

    abstract: Here be <em>some</em> dragons

Maybe you have to do:

    abstract: <Here be <em>some</em> dragons>

and:

    abstract: <<para { style : "bold" }>Here be some dragons</para>>

such that '<' denotes the start of a special kind of construct in the same
way that '{', '[', and '"' denote the start of special kinds of construct.

Also, I don't think you need the object markers around the 'attributes'.
e.g. you could simply do:

    abstract: <<para
            author: { GivenName: "Michael",
                    FamilyName: "Kay",
                    FavouriteQuote: <XSLT <em>Rocks</em>> },
            affiliation: "Saxonica">Here be some dragons</para>>

i.e. it's implicit that a marked up text type has an optional object in it. 
That said, not needing them is not a reason for not having them.  I don't 
think the commas are needed either.  They just make it look 'pretty'!

Pete Cordell
Codalogic Ltd
Interface XML to C++ the easy way using C++ XML
data binding to convert XSD schemas to C++ classes.
Visit http://codalogic.com/lmx/ or http://www.xml2cpp.com
for more info

Original Message From: "Michael Kay"

>
> On 14/02/2011 18:03, Liam R E Quin wrote:
>> I spent some time this weekend wondering how minimal one could make XML
>> and still have something useful. Then, like almost everyone else,
>> speculated on some random changes.
>>
>> http://www.barefootliam.org/xml/20110212-xml-redux
>>
>> (comments there are moderated to prevent spam, but should show up
>> eventually)
>>
>> Liam
>>
>>
> I'm inclined to be much more radical. There's no benefit in making
> incremental improvements that cause a lot of disruption; the world will
> stick with XML as it is today unless something radically better comes
> along. For some applications where XML has been exploited over the last
> ten years, JSON is radically better; for other applications, it's
> hopeless. Let's rethink from the ground up, learning from what has gone
> before in other traditions as well as our own.
>
> Angle brackets aren't a good way to handle structured data. It's not just
> the end tags that are redundant; there's usually no need to have separate
> names for a collection and its members, and there's no need to name each
> member of a homogeneous collection. They were invented for textual markup;
> let's stop trying to use them for other purposes.
>
> What data structures do we need? Basically those in JSON, plus structured
> text.
>
> * Maps (key - value pairs)
>
> * Sequences of values
>
> * Strings, numbers, booleans
>
> * Text elements
>
> For syntax, extend JSON with one additional kind of value - the text
> element - which looks like an XML element today, except that the
> attributes are replaced by a property of an element called its metadata
> which may be any of the above kind of values - most often a map, but not
> restricted.
>
> So we might have
>
> {  authors: [
>       {name: "Michael Kay", affiliation: "Saxonica"},
>       {name: "Liam Quin", affiliation: "W3C"}
>    ]
>    abstract: <para { style : "bold" }>Here be some dragons</para>
>    content: <section { numbers : [1,1,2] }><para>...</para></section>
> }
>
> This uses the tagging syntax where it was designed to be used, for textual
> markup; it uses notations designed for structured data when we want to
> hold structured data; and it gives full composability between the two -
> including of course elements within the metadata of another element.
>
> Michael Kay
> Saxonica
>
>
>
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