Re: [tlug] OT: XML?

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

>>>>> "Jean-Christian" == Jean-Christian Imbeault <jean_christian@example.com> writes:

    Jean-Christian> Lost me. Are you saying the "why" is so that I can
    Jean-Christian> tell when my site doesn't follow the rules I have
    Jean-Christian> set for it's hierachical layout?

Yes.

    >> The how is simple.  Your favorite programming language(s) will
    >> have libraries for handling XML.

    Jean-Christian> Oops ... my "how" refered to how to write a web
    Jean-Christian> site in XML, not how to parse it after it has been
    Jean-Christian> written.

They're not as far apart as you might think.

There are lots of tools for "making XML files" (eg, several modes for
(X)Emacs).  But the main thing is choosing your DTD/schema, and then
using a structure-aware editor.  With DTDs PSGML/XEmacs is excellent,
but it doesn't know schemas yet.

    >> The second half of "why" is that you can use these libraries to
    >> create abbreviations that expose the common structure of your
    >> site, while hiding the boilerplate.  Ie, you generate the
    >> presentation from the source.  You can automatically verify
    >> syntax and often large parts of semantics automatically.  And
    >> you can use the deep structure to generate varying views of
    >> your content from the same sources.

    Jean-Christian> Now *that* sounds like a Good Thing(tm). But then
    Jean-Christian> again as someone else pointed out XHTML and CSS
    Jean-Christian> would pretty much do this also.

Not really.  CSS is pure presentation.  No help on structure, except
that it allows you to separate very low-level presentation issues
(fonts, colors, sizes) from content.  XHTML does provide some
structure, but not very much.  And it is also mostly oriented toward
presentation.  No use for a database, for example.

    Jean-Christian> Fair enough but if I have no plans to communicate
    Jean-Christian> with anyone else sounds like a big part of what
    Jean-Christian> XML is all about will be lost on my "little web
    Jean-Christian> site".

What's a web site for, if not communication?  I know you meant
something different, but one thing leads to another....

    Jean-Christian> But for a "simple" site judicious use of HTML and
    Jean-Christian> CSS separates form from content well ...

True.  But it doesn't leave much room for growth or automation.

-- 
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences     http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
University of Tsukuba                    Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
 My nostalgia for Icon makes me forget about any of the bad things.  I don't
have much nostalgia for Perl, so its faults I remember.  Scott Gilbert c.l.py