Re: xml uses and books to read
On Sun, 11 Apr 2004 18:10:15 -0700, Richard Gaskin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [...] XML is just data given structure by putting it between starting and ending tags. Though an increasing number of applications use it for data storage, its primary benefit is in exchanging data with other apps. So once you find a task for which XML would be a good way to exchange data, find out which tags the others apps use and parse those out to get the data you're after. Richard, you are the king of commonsense! This simple idea has made me more aware of the **idea** of XML than many another text I have had the misfortune to read. The other bit of info about the **principles** of XML that is missing for me is the answer to the question: If XML tags and structures can be made to represent pretty well anything, how does the user community for a particular dialect/ language/ data model expressed in XML communicate? I mean, if a particular set of XML tags and structures is about chemical compounds or the parts of a bicycle or whatever, is there a generalised metalinguistic way of defining what the representation means, or does the community share some more or less informal description and then conform to that? Good luck to Andrew - I'd like a report about how he gets on! Graham --- Graham Samuel / The Living Fossil Co. / UK France ___ use-revolution mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: xml uses and books to read
On Sunday, April 11, 2004, at 05:52 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In a message dated 04/11/2004 08:34:20 PM, Mark Brownell writes: There are so many uses for XML that if you have a specific need you might want to learn about XML by the topic or area of interest best suited to your needs. -- Since custom props can't have arrays (and using prop sets are a hack from my pov) -- yet, I am using xml as a data structure only. will this help narrow down the book i should read. I am finding the rr docs to be poor and poor examples too, sorry. This is my second pass on the rr docs. But am determined to master xml, just wish I didnt have to work so hard on it. Andrew At an earlier time I posted this stack and message below. It is a set of functions that can store data as simple XML, MTML, and parse it by calling a location. You could store records inside any array address then use simple MTML tags inside each record for specific data. This is just an example stack. You would be expected to know how to work with the functions after reading the examples. MTML, if used for the purpose of transforming it into well-formed validated XML, only lacks a proper header and root level to parse with the rev based parser. So a dual use parsing system could be run using the simpler to use MTML the rev based parser if that interests you. Earlier: Dimensional Arrays: This thing is not a real array within an array, it just acts like one. It provides a way to stare the data as MTML, like simple XML. This version is created with functions that can be copied to your own scripts. Paste this into the message window: go URL http://www.gizmotron.org/revolution/dimensionalList.rev; -- see stack scripts for functions -- function addArray dataString, spotArray, theData -- Note: addArray() will replace data that already exists in the dataString -- Example for adding multi-dimensional data: -- put addArray(myMTMLDataString, [1][4][5], John Doe) into field showMTML -- put addArray(myMTMLDataString, 1,4,5, John Doe) into field showMTML -- see stack scripts for functions -- function getArray dataString, spotArray -- Example for getting multi-dimensional data: -- put getArray(myMTMLDataString, [1][4][5]) into field showData -- put getArray(myMTMLDataString, 1,4,5) into field showData Mark Brownell ___ use-revolution mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: xml uses and books to read
Graham Samuel wrote: On Sun, 11 Apr 2004 18:10:15 -0700, Richard Gaskin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [...] XML is just data given structure by putting it between starting and ending tags. Though an increasing number of applications use it for data storage, its primary benefit is in exchanging data with other apps. So once you find a task for which XML would be a good way to exchange data, find out which tags the others apps use and parse those out to get the data you're after. Richard, you are the king of commonsense! This simple idea has made me more aware of the **idea** of XML than many another text I have had the misfortune to read. The other bit of info about the **principles** of XML that is missing for me is the answer to the question: If XML tags and structures can be made to represent pretty well anything, how does the user community for a particular dialect/ language/ data model expressed in XML communicate? I mean, if a particular set of XML tags and structures is about chemical compounds or the parts of a bicycle or whatever, is there a generalised metalinguistic way of defining what the representation means, or does the community share some more or less informal description and then conform to that? This is commonly done through a DTD, or document type declaration, and is often the second line in an XML file (the first being the XML declaration). For example, here are the first two lines from Rev's info.plist file: ?xml version=1.0 encoding=UTF-8? !DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC -//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd; The first line describes the XML version used, and the second provides the location of the DTD that defines the type of XML document it is. For more on DTDs see: http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-xml-20040204/#dt-doctype The annotated version is likely more helpful: http://www.xml.com/axml/axml.html This discussion on type declarations is quite readable, if a little sparse: http://www.rpbourret.com/xml/xmldtd.htm There are many more good references and tutorials: http://www.google.com/search?q=declaring+xml+doctypebtnG=Search -- Richard Gaskin Fourth World Media Corporation ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.FourthWorld.com ___ use-revolution mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
RE: xml uses and books to read
If XML tags and structures can be made to represent pretty well anything, how does the user community for a particular dialect/ language/ data model expressed in XML communicate? I mean, if a particular set of XML tags and structures is about chemical compounds or the parts of a bicycle or whatever, is there a generalised metalinguistic way of defining what the representation means, or does the community share some more or less informal description and then conform to that? In my (albeit limited) experience, it has been the latter. Many times the data tends to expose a natural structure. For example, a product inventory could naturally break down to: inventory product part/part part/part part/part /product product part/part part/part /product /inventory etc. Graham, it might be good to look at the documentation for my XML Library, which goes into some detail about XML and has examples of how it's used: http://www.sonsothunder.com/products/metacard/downloads/xmllibdocs.pdf (it's about 462K, FYI) Ken Ray Sons of Thunder Software Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web Site: http://www.sonsothunder.com/ ___ use-revolution mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: xml uses and books to read
In a message dated 04/11/2004 08:34:20 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: There are so many uses for XML that if you have a specific need you might want to learn about XML by the topic or area of interest best suited to your needs. -- Since custom props can't have arrays (and using prop sets are a hack from my pov) -- yet, I am using xml as a data structure only. will this help narrow down the book i should read. I am finding the rr docs to be poor and poor examples too, sorry. This is my second pass on the rr docs. But am determined to master xml, just wish I didnt have to work so hard on it. Andrew ___ use-revolution mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Re: xml uses and books to read
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: There are so many uses for XML that if you have a specific need you might want to learn about XML by the topic or area of interest best suited to your needs. -- Since custom props can't have arrays (and using prop sets are a hack from my pov) -- yet, I am using xml as a data structure only. will this help narrow down the book i should read. I am finding the rr docs to be poor and poor examples too, sorry. This is my second pass on the rr docs. But am determined to master xml, just wish I didnt have to work so hard on it. What aspects are giving you trouble? XML is just data given structure by putting it between starting and ending tags. Though an increasing number of applications use it for data storage, its primary benefit is in exchanging data with other apps. So once you find a task for which XML would be a good way to exchange data, find out which tags the others apps use and parse those out to get the data you're after. Even better for Rev users, Rev includes a good XML library that does most of the parsing for you. If you need something in native Transcript, Ken has a great Transcript-based XML lib: http://www.sonsothunder.com/index2.htm?http://www.sonsothunder.com/products/products.htm If you need to dig deeper, the XML spec is defined at the W3C site: http://www.w3c.org/XML/ So dive in - the waters are well charted. And if you get stuck in a marsh or rapids drop in here and decribe the terrain you've encountered and chances are someone else has already navigated it and can share the benefit of their experience. -- Richard Gaskin Fourth World Media Corporation ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.FourthWorld.com ___ use-revolution mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
