Recursive Implementation
The root node consists of a value, an optional left subtree, and an optional right subtree.
A subtree is a node.
A node consists of a value, an optional left subtree, and an optional right subtree.
Here is a recursive XML representation of the above binary tree:
A simpler XML approach is to use elements named root-node, left-node, and right-node. That reduces the number of levels in the tree by half.
In addition, I don't know of any parsers that use recursion in the language to support recursion in the tree; the nesting is normally stored as an array of element objects, either fixed (in which case you get an error) or growable. Such a structure can of course be traversed in XSLT, but not with native traversal mechanisms.. Your flat representation doesn't gain you much, then.
John Cowan
http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan cowan@ccil.orgCash registers don't really add and subtract;
they only grind their gears.
But then they don't really grind their gears, either;
they only obey the laws of physics. --Unknown
