Re: [basex-talk] Differences in serialization of arrays with JSON vs. adaptive methods

[Joe Wicentowski]

Hi Christian


> Our custom renderer was optimized for
> performance. It’s possible to open and highlight pretty large XML
> documents, but the highlighting is very basic.


Ah, I see.  Very interesting.

rendered queries will even be “bluer” than before, but the overall
> appearance will hopefully be more consistent.
>

Having tried out the snapshot, I can confirm the queries are bluer!

Best,
Joe

Re: [basex-talk] Differences in serialization of arrays with JSON vs. adaptive methods

[Joe Wicentowski]

Hi Christian,

I just gave it a try, and the new serialization preferences work like a
charm.

It's pretty amazing to see a request go from idea to implementation so
quickly - thank you!  I think it's a nice touch that serialization options
specified in a query are respected, so the preferences only affect the
defaults that apply to a query - they don't override anything in a query.

Your listing of ambiguities in the adaptive method are certainly valid.
The quote escaping does bother me, so it does come at a cost, I guess.  I
do find myself quickly switching away to JSON or text serialization to
avoid some of these quirks when I don't like the look of adaptive.

And, to close the loop, I agree that the spec remains ambiguous in the area
of indentation of maps and arrays, and while BaseX in no way violates the
spec here, I personally would advocate for consistency in the way maps and
arrays are indented and serialized across the various map- and array-aware
methods.  But this is a terribly minor point, and folks who want uniformity
can always use another tool to pretty-print their data.

Finally, I just remembered observation that came up during the class - the
BaseX GUI editor's syntax highlighting sometimes breaks down in odd places,
such as the middle of a function name, e.g., in `fn:format-date()`, the
`fn` and `-date` are colored black, but `format` is colored blue.  I've
attached a screenshot showing the phenomenon.  Again, this isn't a major
issue, and syntax highlighting probably can't always be perfect, but I
thought I'd mention it since it came up.

Thanks again for all of your kind assistance!
Joe

On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 11:29 PM, Christian Grün 
wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> To begin with: I forgot to mention that you can change the
> serialization method by launching the command "set serializer
> method=adaptive" in the command input text field on top of the BaseX
> window.
>
> I agree this is not very comfortable, so I have now added a new
> interaction component for changing all serialization parameters in the
> GUI. I have decided to move the input components to the Preferences
> dialog (Ctrl-Shift-P, Visualization panel), as I’d like to keep the
> main interface clean. If more people ask for it, I might add a
> dropdown menu for the serialization method on top of the Result View,
> let’s see.
>
> The new component for adjusting the serialization parameters is also
> available now in the Export Database dialog. A new stable snapshot is
> available [1], and the next minor release will be available around end
> of August.
>
> Looking forward to your feedback,
> Christian
>
> [1] http://files.basex.org/releases/latest/
>
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 11, 2017 at 12:40 AM, Christian Grün
>  wrote:
> > Hi Joe,
> >
> >> Have you considered adding a preference or toggle for selecting the
> default
> >> serialization method used in the GUI's results?
> >
> > Sounds like an enticing idea! Something similar is embedded in our
> > Database Export dialog (see menü items 'Database', 'Export…'). I
> > haven’t touched it for years, and it could surely be revised as well.
> > I will definitely think about adding something like this in to our
> > Result View [1].
> >
> >> From my perspective in teaching XQuery, showing an
> >> xs:string item in quotes (and integers sans quotes) helps reinforce the
> >> concept of data types.
> >
> > This is a good thought indeed.
> >
> >> Besides string handling, though, are
> >> there other aspects of "adaptive" that you dislike compared to the
> default
> >> "basex" method?
> >
> > I would say that both methods (now) serve different purposes:
> >
> > • Our 'basex' method was included because BaseX is used in many
> > different contexts, and we were looking for a single serialization
> > method that can be used for as many use cases as possible at the same
> > time. If BaseX is used on command-line, it can be convenient if the
> > textual output (usually XML, strings, numbers) can directly be passed
> > on to other commands, or saved in text files. If the GUI is used, text
> > from the result view can be copied and pasted to other tools (such as
> > CSV output, which can be pasted in Excel, etc.).
> >
> > • The 'adaptive' simplifies the recycling of results in other XQuery
> > expressions. I agree it also helps users to understand the differences
> > between data types. I find it a bit confusing, however, that some
> > items will be output with a constructor function, whereas other will
> > simply be output as strings. Some examples:
> >
> >   1,
> >   xs:double(1),
> >   'a"b',
> >   xs:anyURI('a"b'),
> >   xs:QName('xml:x'),
> >   /@a
> >
> > …will be serialized as…
> >
> >   1
> >   1
> >   "a""b"
> >   xs:anyURI("a""b")
> >   Q{http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace}x
> >   a="b"
> >
> > It would probably have been more consistent to create output that can
> > always be reused, and that always contains the datatype:
> >
> >