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Re: Serialization of XDM

• From: Michael Ludwig <mlu@as-guides.com>
• To: XML Developers List <xml-dev@lists.xml.org>
• Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:46:36 +0200

rjelliffe@allette.com.au schrieb:
>> Isn't there a desire in XDM to get away from the nitty-gritty XML
>> syntax details and join the realm of programming languages and their
>> data structures living in memory?
>
> This sounds like you think some other serialization won't have
> syntactical nitty-gritty!

It may sound like that, but only if you listen like that. To clarify,
I do not think at all that other formats are free of syntactical
nitty-gritty.

> If your idea is that the XPath Data Model is an improvement on XML,
> then you are lost in the realm of apples and oranges, no slight
> intended.

I don't think it is an improvement. It's different. I haven't been
involved with the development of any of that, so I'm not in a position
to make negative judgments on the merits of either one. In fact, I think
both are excellent; I wouldn't be spending time reading XML lists if I
thought otherwise.

>> In all cases, will it not be more efficient to just use some
>> run-of-the-mill serialization format? I'm sure plenty of those
>> have been produced to foolproof perfection throughout the decades.
>> I would honor those efforts instead of rolling my own wheel in
>> angle brackets.

What I meant here is some venerable stuff that I think must exist. To my
knowledge, Academia has had a certain interest in tree data structures
over the decades, and I think there is a good chance of a serialization
model suitable for carrying XDM having been produced in this process of
academic interest.

> Hey, maybe someone should suggest JSON [...]

That's not at all what I had in mind. I don't know either XDM or JSON
well enough to be in a position to tell if the latter is suitable or not
for representing the former.

> I note that Charles Goldfarb had an inlining model for XML type
> information [...]

Incidentally, I've made some reactionary statements in favor of DTD and
SGML on this list, so why would I indulge in liberalism and be pushing
JSON?

On the whole, I think you've misunderstood the impulse driving my
posting, which, admittedly, might only be visible by taking into account
other postings I've made. But it doesn't matter, no offense taken :-)

Best,

-- 
Michael Ludwig

• References:
  • Serialization of XDM
    • From: "David A. Lee" <dlee@calldei.com>
  • Re: Serialization of XDM
    • From: Michael Ludwig <mlu@as-guides.com>
  • Re: Serialization of XDM
    • From: rjelliffe@allette.com.au