On Jan 3, 2007, at 9:29 AM, Alexander Klimetschek wrote:
BTW: In sitemaps you have multiple usage of the term "pipeline": there is the element <pipeline> which typically contains multiple matcher with their own pipeline - so you have pipelines there. And inside of act statements you have "internal" pipelines where at the same time you can declare a <pipeline> as internal-only="true"... All a bit confusing to me ;-)
Yes... informally we use the term "pipeline" all the time to mean "matcher or selector", which is different from the formal meaning of the sitemap <pipeline> (which is more like a network of pipes than a single pipe). I've never been able come up with a satisfying unambiguous nomenclature.
I think at one point I was also considering trying to introduce the term "subpipeline" in some documentation that I haven't yet got around to writing. I think I probably would have used that to to mean any sequence of components, where "pipeline" would have continued to mean a full pipeline that originates with generation and terminates with serialization.
If my proposed new matching language for the sitemap catches on, then there will be no more <select>, so we could just start using the term "matchers" for some of the things we today refer to colloquially as "pipelines".
The language "internal pipeline" for <act> is probably a poor choice of wording, "subpipeline" is probably better. BTW these are no different than the subpipelines (to use my new term) inside a nested matcher or selector (or resource).
stuff to think about... :-) —ml—
