Re: [Atox-user] Possible future Atox format (long)

[Magnus L. H. <ma...@he...>]

Thomas Kalka <th...@co...>:
>
> Hi Magnus,
> 
> I did not understand which question you would like to have
> commented.
> 
> Is it: should I change the front-end before I know how the back-end
> will look like ?

Just general comments on whether the use of something like Relax NG
would be a good idea. Basically, the question is (I think): "If a
future version of Atox is necessarily backward-incompatible, would it
be a good idea to drop the current format completely and change to a
more standard one, such as Relax NG?"

The most conservative alternative would, most likely, be to use the
current format but with a different regexp language. It would still be
backward incompatible -- if such a change is made at all. (Maybe I'll
just implement it and use it myself, without releasing it ;)

> Is there a way to transform RELAX NG XML to the current atox XML
> format ?

That would only be a matter of writing an XSLT style sheet, I guess.
That should work the other way (from the current Atox format to Relax
NG) as well. So that sort of compatibility ought to be possible -- but
the regexp language would still be incompatible if Flex (or something
similar) is to be used (for performance reasons). Including such XSLT
transformations in the distribution wouldn't be a problem, I guess.
(At least I should think this to be a simple matter -- I'm not 100%
sure.)

The two issues are quite separate, though (the format language and the
back-end/parser implementation). Both decisions/implementation will
eventually be taken in concert, though, I guess.

Just for the record (again): Atox is not in any way "frozen" yet --
until it is (if ever) backward incompatibilities may well occur. I've
tried to warn about that (among other places, on the Atox home page).
The main reason for this is that I haven't quite found a form I'm
satisfied with (both regarding the format and the implementation).

I guess to make this even clearer I could develop the current version
to a 1.0 release and push the experimental stuff to a 2.0 release (or
somesuch), and keep a bug fix branch open for 1.0...

-- 
Magnus Lie Hetland              "Wake up!"  - Rage Against The Machine
http://hetland.org              "Shut up!"  - Linkin Park