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[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] What Are Components in XML Languages? (Was RE: RE: Auto-comple
 I mean that each application will indeed have specialized requirements and that relying exclusively on a generic editor doesn't work. So while we know from experience almost any XML editor should have a way to get to a generic syntax level editor, after that, it becomes narrower and narrower. Interdev won't work for X3D in the main. So we agree. I do think there is a common set of representations that work *ok* for the a large number of applications, and that kind of thinking leads to the components one finds in the MS common control dll, and the objects in the IDE for placing on forms. Not new news, but if we see "the Web" as just pieces and assemblies, the architecture for that works first at the component level, and after that, it's in the way that you use it. Today, I wouldn't trust a lot of plugins to be compatible for the same application language because the semantic definitions are so weak. This has been a major challenge for the X3D project and that is to enable extensibility via components for ONE language. It isn't a simple issue if you can't get down to the COM level of things in the specs. Do you think XML by itself manages that level of definition? I don't. On the other hand, nothing says a well-designed set of components shouldn't work together, and that is the trend I expect. It will get messy in compound documents. The namespace paradigm reflects, IMO, a database centric view of the architecture. I am wondering if archforms done with modern systems in mind (component-based software) can do better. Big business for the integrator. This gets into the heart of What Is Hypermedia and Why Was MAC86 the ultimate design but that is a noodling thread for the history wonks. len -----Original Message----- From: Nicolas LEHUEN [mailto:nicolas.lehuen@u...] Len, are you sure that you should expect an XML editor vendor to support the same set of features that you want for VRML ? I'd say that for this kind of requirements, an editor dedicated to the application is more expected to be satisfying. I mean, it's difficult to expect a generic document editor to provide views that require interpretation of the document (working at the semantic level, not the lexical level), unless the document semantics are hardcoded into the editor. Maybe it could be made by having multiple layers in the editor : a set of tools and views working at the lexical level (generic layer), plus a set of tools and view working at the semantical level (application-specific layer), that could be installed on top of the former in the form of plug-ins. Thus, the vendor could provide its core product (with the generic layer), and integrate its own or third party's application-specific modules. Thus, specific market would be adressed by specific vendors, not always the generic XML editor vendors. This could be a good thing, because generic XML editors vendors won't take the risk of going on small markets or markets in which they are not specialised. You can't expect a generic XML editor vendor to provide an excellent X3D editor (with 3D preview and interaction, timeline-based editing, etc.), and vice-versa. But a plugin-based system would benefit both the generic XML editor vendor and the application-specific editor vendor. I guess we're back to the subject of managing plugins, i.e. associating code to data to be able to work at the semantic level... And this time, with a business objective :) But before we find a solution to this problem, there is the question of how to write a decent generic XML editor. 
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