>> XML is wonderful in theory, but in practice it takes something that should be simple and makes it ridiculously complicated. Why should I spend hours learning a strange new language (DOM) just to get a few tags out of my file, or another new language (XSLT) to do template-like substitutions (I already have Cheetah), or a third new language (xpath) to avoid DOM? Or if I use SAX I have to set up callbacks and piece the portions of the value together. In the time it takes to learn DOM and XSLT, I could have my application already done. <<
I understand the sentiment but the truth is that DOM, XSLT, XPath, SAX : all these "ridiculously complicated" new languages represent real and worthwhile additions to the programmers toolbox *because they are the same across platforms and languages*. To take each example : DOM : A standard API for XML documents so much more than "just a way to get a few tags out of your file" especially when combined with DTD's for validating your input. XSLT : No offence to the cheetah guys but XSLT is more, so much more (This doesn't mean that Cheetah isn't the best choice for any given application). XPath : As "ridiculously complicated" and as useful as SQL for RDBMS's. SAX : A simple and (usually) incredibly fast parser for XML documents that's the same on every platform. I prefer the DOM myself but SAX has virtually no overhead so will work with multi-gigabyte XML files. >> ..I bet there's a huge class of Python XML applications that could get by with pyRXL for input and 'print' or your template system of choice for output, without ever having to touch DOM, XSLT or SAX at all. And that the lack of such a tool has held back the number of XML-aware Python applications by a significant amount. << Probably true but I think standardization on these other technologies will take us further in the long-run. - Ian Sparks. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, April 19, 2002 3:36 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Webware-discuss] Whence FormKit? Or, alas, poor FormKit, weknew him. On Fri, Apr 19, 2002 at 05:58:22PM -0000, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > It's certainly hard to define what convenience is where XML processing is > concerned. Personally, I'm more and more against converting XML documents to > other representations (or accessing them as those representations), Funny, I'm becoming more and more convinced not to use XML at all, and if you have to (e.g., to exchange data with unknown systems, or to let users edit data in a flat text file), limit the XML to just those subsystems. XML is wonderful in theory, but in practice it takes something that should be simple and makes it ridiculously complicated. Why should I spend hours learning a strange new language (DOM) just to get a few tags out of my file, or another new language (XSLT) to do template-like substitutions (I already have Cheetah), or a third new language (xpath) to avoid DOM? Or if I use SAX I have to set up callbacks and piece the portions of the value together. In the time it takes to learn DOM and XSLT, I could have my application already done. I just wish pyRXP was available a few years ago when the XML tools for Python first came out. I bet there's a huge class of Python XML applications that could get by with pyRXL for input and 'print' or your template system of choice for output, without ever having to touch DOM, XSLT or SAX at all. And that the lack of such a tool has held back the number of XML-aware Python applications by a significant amount. -- -Mike (Iron) Orr, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (if mail problems: [EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://iron.cx/ English * Esperanto * Russkiy * Deutsch * Espan~ol _______________________________________________ Webware-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/webware-discuss _______________________________________________ Webware-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/webware-discuss
