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Re: If XML is too hard for a programmer, perhaps he'd be better off as a

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Re: If XML is too hard for a programmer, perhaps he'd be better off as a crossing guard
• From: "Dimitre Novatchev" <dnovatchev@y...>
• Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 21:02:42 +0100
• References: <dareo@m...> <E18yPhs-0003rf-00@b...>
• Sender: news <news@m...>

"Uche Ogbuji" <uche.ogbuji@f...> wrote in message
E18yPhs-0003rf-00@b...">news:E18yPhs-0003rf-00@b......
> Tim's article just made me roll my eyes.  XML has made my life as a
developer
> much easier, and i can't think of a developer whom I've mentored in using
XML
> that doesn't have the same experience.  I suspect that Tim has completely
> misplaced the actual problem.
>
> BTW, I find the idea of processing XML using simple regexen pretty hair
> raising.  Holy impedance mismatch!  Holy error prone!  That's supposed to
be
> easier?  My mind boggles.

Feeling exactly the same way.

How can someone speak in the name of *all* programmers?

Let me say:

 XML is not hard at all for the majority of XSLT programmers -- as witnessed
e.g. on the xsl-list.

The reasons for this are not at all personal and subjective.

Certainly, processing an XML document as a single large string using regex
tricks has nothing to do with XML, therefore, the problem with any such
approach is not XML per se, but simply that this approach is deeply flawed.

To put things back into their right place:

 1. An XML document is a representation of a tree of nodes.
 2. There are powerful languages for processing such kind of tree-structured
data e.g. XSLT.

Surely, any attempt to regard a tree of nodes as a linear sequence of "start
tags" and "end tags" and to process it as such is an inherently masochistic
experience.


=====
Cheers,

Dimitre Novatchev.
http://fxsl.sourceforge.net/ -- the home of FXSL

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• References:
  • If XML is too hard for a programmer, perhaps he'd be better off as a crossing guard
    • From: Uche Ogbuji <uche.ogbuji@f...>

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