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Re: xml 2.0 - so it's on the way after all?

• To: Rick Marshall <rjm@z...>
• Subject: Re: xml 2.0 - so it's on the way after all?
• From: Elliotte Harold <elharo@m...>
• Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2005 20:44:40 -0500
• Cc: Rich Salz <rsalz@d...>, Bob Foster <bob@o...>, xml-dev@l...
• In-reply-to: <4203FDB8.3080802@z...>
• References: <Pine.LNX.4.44L0.0501280904130.20504-100000@s...> <200502032213.56841.david.lyon@c...> <4202A983.6030803@z...> <4202C65B.7000207@o...> <42038131.8080701@m...> <42039ACA.9020203@d...> <4203FDB8.3080802@z...>
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Rick Marshall wrote:


> while not "every damn fool" can write a c etc compiler, it's certainly 
> well within the capabilities of a comp science undergrad (and in fact 
> part of the course in many places - or similar). but a compiler is more 
> than a parser and here we're simply talking the difficulty of parsing 
> xml - let alone doing anything with it.

Good point about the difference between compiling and merely parsing. 
Still in my limited experience (one university, but a relatively 
prestigious one) graduate students did not write a C compiler as part of 
their compiler course, much less undergraduates. They wrote a compiler 
for  a stripped down language that looked like C but wasn't because all 
the difficult bits had been pulled out. I don't want to see a lot of de 
facto XML subsets in every other program. Making a parser simple enough 
that a lot of people *think* they can write one quickly is asking for 
trouble.

Note I don't doubt that writing an XML parser is well within the 
capabilities of many hundreds of thousands of programmers. I just doubt 
that a programmer who is not fully focused on XML will write a correct 
parser, even if the language is simplified. Furthermore, I do not think 
it is in their interests to do so, compared to whatever other jobs they 
have to accomplish. It's better for everyone if they just use the 
available, high quality off-the-shelf parsers.

-- 
Elliotte Rusty Harold  elharo@m...
XML in a Nutshell 3rd Edition Just Published!
http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/xian3/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0596007647/cafeaulaitA/ref=nosim

• Follow-Ups:
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    • From: David Lyon <david.lyon@c...>
  • Re: xml 2.0 - so it's on the way after all?
    • From: Rick Marshall <rjm@z...>
  • Re: xml 2.0 - so it's on the way after all?
    • From: Bob Foster <bob@o...>
  • Re: xml 2.0 - so it's on the way after all?
    • From: Elliotte Harold <elharo@m...>
  • Re: xml 2.0 - so it's on the way after all?
    • From: Rich Salz <rsalz@d...>
  • Re: xml 2.0 - so it's on the way after all?
    • From: Rick Marshall <rjm@z...>

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