Jack Park wrote:
>
> From: Eric Armstrong <eric.armstrong@eng.sun.com>
>
> <snippage>
> > * Most of the concepts are redefined in terms
> > of modern programming languages such as Java
> > rather than in terms of markup text processing.
>
> That particular point is what bothers me. In terms of pure computer
> science
> (whatever that may be), what inxar does is to make it easier for the
> CS
> jockeys to read and use. For the rest of us, it makes little sense at
> all.
> There's a whole body of folks out there learning XML. Some, also doing
> Java,
> Perl, whatever, many never doing either. Were I to pursue inxar
> further,
> I'd be awfully inclined to remove the cryptic stuff and make it as
> readable
> as possible, even though it may be a bit less efficient in the
> computational
> sense.
>
Good point, Jack.
Dead on.
Nicholas wrote that good XML editors *ought* to be in progress.
But only with a smart schema that lets you distinguish structure
from content is that possible. There is one such, but it's not
standard. And even then, the available GUI tools are woefully
inadequate to the task.
But XML's syntax makes it possible to do *something*. There's
always a plain text editor. And even in DreamWeaver's great
(html) editor, I frequently find myself massaging the markup
directly to get around the idiosyncracies of the product.
With a binary file format, such workarounds are not possible.
And even if the syntax were visible, as Jack indicates, the
language-like syntax could make it impenetrable to the
uninitiated.
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