Schematron is a validator generator ... Bison is a parser generator... s

[Roger L Costello <costello@mitre.org>]

Hi Folks,

A Schematron document is a high-level description of validation rules. A Schematron processor inputs a Schematron document and outputs a validator. Then you can run the validator on an XML document and the validator will validate the XML document.

So a Schematron processor is a validator generator.

"Hey Schematron processor, here is a Schematron document; please generate a validator."

A Bison document is a high-level description of the grammar of a language. A Bison tool inputs a Bison document and outputs a parser. Then you can run the parser on an instance of the language and the parser will parse the instance document.

So a Bison tool is a parser generator.

"Hey Bison tool, here is an grammar document; please generate a parser."

Summary: Write a high-level description, hand it off to a tool and the tool generates a validator (or parser, or ...). Oh, that is such a cool way to build tools!

/Roger