[exprla-devel] The gist of it...

[reid_spencer <ras...@re...>]

--- In xpl-dev@y..., Robert A Hopkins <p061949c@p...> wrote:
Are we doing a wish list as a new mailing list as a convenient way to 
index items? I think it's a lot of work to plough through email 
archives, 
and I don't see how there's enough volume on this list to justify 
splitting it. What I had in mind was more like a simple html page 
with 
literally a list of ideas, and a link or two if anyone wants to 
provide 
more information. Is this do-able? Maintainable? (I have mail lists 
coming out of my ears.) Michael, do we have a web site?

Jonathan (11 May): 
"Would you like to see
the addition example re-expressed using simplifications like that?" 

I think the more we express & re-express this language that doesn't 
exist 
yet, the more fluent we will become. (What does "<stdout>" mean? And 
"<stdin>"?) (Jonathan, is there a reason you're using the form 
"<comment></comment>" rather than "<!--comment here...-->"?)

Jonathan:
<if>
    <false>
        <verify>
            mylist
        </verify>
    </false>

    abort        <comment> Handy things, macros. </comment>
</if>

I like this. I think if I would argue for anything it  would be for 
rigorously applying one of the fundamental concepts of xml, and that 
is 
of containment. Elements are containers into which you stick things. 
So 
the "if" container (or "conditional" or 
"what-the-heck-is-if-then-called-in-formal-logic" container holds a 
container for the condition to be tested and a container for the 
action 
to be taken. Everything else is an attribute.)

Jonathan:
<comment>
    Here we define a program variable to contain
    a list of integers.
<comment>

<variable type=intList>
    <name>
        mylist
    </name>
</variable>

<comment>

Somehow I'm not comfortable with the idea of a container called 
"variable". How about "<xpl:variable-type name=intList>"

As for the substance of what you're saying, I'm still working on it. 
As I
understand it, the gist of it is that you want to define a complex 
data
type in a DTD rather than in some sort of TYPE statement. (With 
namespace
we can link your variable to a different DTD. Name it something on the
order of "int:intlist", then it or any int:variable would belong to a
different namespace and different DTD than the default xmlns:xpl (it 
would
be linked to xmlns:int).  That obviates my previous suggestion of
"xpl:variable-type".)

ps: Oh my! I just saw what eGroups does to angle brackets in the 
archives! ("View source" works.)

pps: Don't be alarmed, Jonathan, I'm still working on the (larger) 
gist of 
it. 

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--- End forwarded message ---