XML is not very human readable. Neither is Lisp code when it is difficult
to match closing parens.
One advantage of XML over Lisp S expressions is that you know what element
closing tags like </foo> refer to.
People tell me they handle Lisp parens hell by proper indentation. When
properly indented, "you don't even see the parens!".
If people really hate XML's unreadability then what about an XML spec that
mandated proper indentation like Python? This would avoid the need for
huge closing tags like </foo>. They could be replaced with just a Lisp
parens or nothing at all like Python!
e.g. Pythonic XHTML..
html
head
title
body
h1
The Title
ul
li
some data
li
some more data
...etc.
e.g. Lisp-ish XHTML
(html
(head
(title))
(body
(h1
The Title)
(ul
(li
some data)
(li
some more data)
...etc.
It seems that we either have to mandate proper indentation in XML to avoid
need for pointy brackets or accept the difficult readability of pointy
bracket XML.
So which is worse? Pythonic whitespace or XML unreadability?
Chris
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