RE: XSLT Architecture: Next Step

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Subject: RE: XSLT Architecture: Next Step
From: Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2003 13:01:45 -0400

My $0.02 on an obscure and difficult, but simple point,

At 07:12 PM 7/3/2003, Bill wrote:

Didier Says...

<As you know, XML is not a language per se but more a set of rules used to
created languages. The main advantage is that these produced languages share
a common syntax and therefore some generic tools can be used for an entire
family of languages. One of these generic tool is XSLT. >

Actually XML is very much a language; i.e., it has a well defined set of
terminal symbols and a grammar describing which strings are acceptable as
strings of the language. Obviously there are a number of parsers out there
that utilize this language definition in order to parse these strings.

Speaking as a student of "language", I note that both of you are correct. The word "language" is (correctly) used in (at least) two senses. Bill notes how in a formal definition useful to developers of computer processors, XML fits the definition of a language in that it has a grammar, etc. But Didier is also correct, in that XML does not define what might be called an "application language" (something that describes/instructs something), but rather is a framework within which such can be implemented.

It's especially confusing since XSLT both is such an application language, and is designed to work on (therefore refer to, describe, specify) such a language. XSLT and XML are both "meta-languages" in that

* XML uses language (the XML Rec's definition of well-formedness; also schemas etc.) to describe rules to make or specify a language (an "application tag set")

* XSLT deploys a language (including XPath) to describe inputs and outputs of a process of linguistic translation or transformation

Readers who enjoy such bewilderments can find more in my Extreme paper of last year, a copy of which appears at http://www.piez.org/wendell/papers/signsystems.pdf.

Cheers,
Wendell

___&&__&_&___&_&__&&&__&_&__&__&&____&&_&___&__&_&&_____&__&__&&_____&_&&_
    "Thus I make my own use of the telegraph, without consulting
     the directors, like the sparrows, which I perceive use it
     extensively for a perch." -- Thoreau

XSL-List info and archive: http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list

Current Thread
RE: XSLT Architecture: Next Step, (continued) Claudio Russo - Thu, 3 Jul 2003 13:40:00 -0400 (EDT) Claudio Russo - Thu, 3 Jul 2003 16:41:52 -0400 (EDT) Bill Cohagan - Thu, 3 Jul 2003 19:23:21 -0400 (EDT) Didier PH Martin - Fri, 4 Jul 2003 11:44:28 -0400 (EDT) Wendell Piez - Fri, 4 Jul 2003 13:30:48 -0400 (EDT) <=

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RE: XSLT Architecture: Next S, Didier PH Martin	Thread	specific template?, Martin Klaffenboeck
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