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Re: JavaScript (was Re: Whither XML ?)

• From: "Pete Cordell" <petexmldev@codalogic.com>
• To: "Michael Kay" <mike@saxonica.com>,<xml-dev@l...>
• Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2010 09:20:12 -0000

Thanks for the interesting comments.

Re:

Original Message From: "Michael Kay"
> On 11/11/2010 12:34, David wrote:
>> My concern about JavaScript in the browser as the "VM of the Browser" is 
>> its lack of binary data support.
>
> I think the poor support for primitive data types is one valid objection. 
> ...

I don't think the x86 instruction set is particularly strongly typed. 
Strong typing is a property of the compiler, so I don't think this rules 
Javascript out of being the 'machine code'.

To do a Roger, I think the conclusion is that Javascript needs better 
support for processing binary data, although a PNG download based hack 
provides much of what is required.

Thanks,

Pete Cordell
Codalogic Ltd
Interface XML to C++ the easy way using C++ XML
data binding to convert XSD schemas to C++ classes.
Visit http://codalogic.com/lmx/ or http://www.xml2cpp.com
for more info

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Kay" <mike@saxonica.com>
To: <xml-dev@lists.xml.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2010 3:16 PM
Subject: Re:  JavaScript (was Re:  Whither XML ?)


>
> On 11/11/2010 12:34, David wrote:
>> My concern about JavaScript in the browser as the "VM of the Browser" is 
>> its lack of binary data support.
>
> I think the poor support for primitive data types is one valid objection. 
> Another, expressed eloquently by Steven Pemberton in his talk at XML 
> Holland this morning, is that a language with weak data typing is 
> increasingly hard to debug as the size of the program increases: the 
> larger the program becomes, the greater the distance between the point at 
> which a program is wrong and the point at which the symptoms appear; so 
> development effort is much worse than linear with the size of the program. 
> This effect is very noticeable also with XSLT, where adding type 
> declarations to variables and parameters is the first thing I do when 
> asked for help in debugging a user stylesheet that lacks such 
> declarations. This objection is reduced a little if one regards Javascript 
> as an intermediate language which users don't actually write by hand. But 
> if one were designing a language for that purpose, Javascript isn't 
> exactly the language you would come up with.
>
> Michael Kay
> Saxonica
>
>
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• References:
  • Whither XML ?
    • From: BillClare3@aol.com
  • Re: Whither XML ?
    • From: COUTHURES Alain <alain.couthures@agencexml.com>
  • Re: Whither XML ?
    • From: Uche Ogbuji <uche@ogbuji.net>
  • Re: Whither XML ?
    • From: Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com>
  • Re: Whither XML ?
    • From: Bjoern Hoehrmann <derhoermi@gmx.net>
  • Re: Whither XML ?
    • From: "Pete Cordell" <petexmldev@codalogic.com>
  • JavaScript (was Re: Whither XML ?)
    • From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@simonstl.com>
  • Re: JavaScript (was Re: Whither XML ?)
    • From: David <dlee@calldei.com>
  • Re: JavaScript (was Re: Whither XML ?)
    • From: Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com>