Re: Interactive XML

Martin Bryan wrote:
> 
> >ECMAScript is designed to be extended. It has essentially no input/output
> >for roughly the same reason that XML has no "bold" command. It is the
> >application's job to add that. Just as an XML application can add a <B>
> >element, an ECMAScript implementation can add an "open a socket to a
> >remote server" function.
> 
> I accept this, but this makes XSL-based applications less portable. 

I misspoke in the last message. Instead of saying an "ECMAScript
implementation can..." I meant to say "ECMAScript application can..."
Since XSL is an application of ECMAScript, it can add as many features as
the XSL community feels is necessary.

> A
> default set of i/o functions (perhaps defined by XML-Dev) would greatly
> help. 

I don't think that a stylesheet should do i/o other than "input=grove
output=flow object tree."

> In particular standard functions for making calls to SQL databases
> and basic CORBA functions would be helpful.

I think that we are mixing up layers here. Yes, the resulting document of
an XSL style transformation might need to do SQL calls and CORBA calls.
But the stylesheet itself should not usually need to do so. If I needed to
insert the result of a SQL call into an XML document, I would create a URL
that generated the right result, and make an "embeded object" reference to
that URL in the flow object tree.

 Paul Prescod  - http://itrc.uwaterloo.ca/~papresco

Three things trust above all else: Your knowledge of your craft
That someone turns a profit, and that you will get the shaft
http://www.geezjan.org/humor/computers/threes.html


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