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Re: Declarative XML Processing with XQuery

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Re: Declarative XML Processing with XQuery
• From: Alexander Johannesen <alexander.johannesen@g...>
• Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 08:36:10 +1100
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• In-reply-to: <1131468473.5807.20.camel@borgia>
• References: <BAY22-F10484649357168509E26A99630@p...> <1131468473.5807.20.camel@borgia>

Hi,

On 11/9/05, Uche Ogbuji <uche.ogbuji@f...> wrote:
> I think that XQuery gets declarativity right, and almost everything
> else wrong.

and

> * I think that the best features of XQuery are already becoming
> available in general-purpose languages, and that XSLT 1.0 was the key in
> bringing this about, not XSLT 2.0 and XQuery.  In particular, XSLT 1.0's
> declaration through patterns and trigger functions (templates) is a
> powerful mechanism [...]

and

> * I think that RDF gets the declarativity right, but is losing its
> chance to get everything else right. [...]

Wow! I thought I was all alone in these thoughts. So yes, a true
understanding of XPath and pattern-matching is a formidable way to
handle XML and should seep into our tools of choice.

I joke that there is nothing I can't do in XSLT (just to briefly
return to an old friend), but more and more I find that silly
statement to be true, and given the scope of the XSLT specification,
that is quite telling. There's a lot of KISS and good design in XSLT
despite a somewhat verbose and clunky syntax. I reckon the first
main-stream language to implement native support for XML and
declarative pattern-matching of such (and none of this SAX nonsense!)
will be setting some new paradigm shifts ... at least, here's to
hoping.


Alex
--
"Ultimately, all things are known because you want to believe you know."
                                                         - Frank Herbert
__ http://shelter.nu/ __________________________________________________

• References:
  • RE: Declarative XML Processing with XQuery
    • From: "Michael Champion" <michael.champion@h...>
  • RE: Declarative XML Processing with XQuery
    • From: Uche Ogbuji <uche.ogbuji@f...>

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