(yes, forgot to CC the list again -- argh!)
Begin forwarded message:
--From: Max Noel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: January 11, 2005 23:33:44 GMT To: Liam Clarke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [Tutor] More and more OT - Python/Java
On Jan 11, 2005, at 23:15, Liam Clarke wrote:
Out of curiousity, having poked around XML while learning about the JScript DOM, what are you using it for?
AFAIK, you make up your own tags, and then parse them and display them, and anyone else could create data using your tags.
Only thing I've seen that uses XML (remember I'm a n00bie in Python, Java, Jscript and HTML, so I don't see the real indepth stuff) is MSN Messenger for it's logs. And MS IE can parse that XML.
I've been curious as to how it's implemented.
So yeah, if you want to share your experiences.
Regards,
Liam Clarke
Well, I plan to use it as a data storage format for a university project (crowd simulation in a shopping center -- coded in Java). I hate binary data formats, and XML is a good unified way to store data as ASCII text, so I figured I'd use it.
Also, XML files can be parsed without too much work, so I can write scripts that will manipulate my data files, in any language ("any" meaning "Python", there).
As a bonus, I've decided to have a look at XSL, which allows me to format a XML file for display in a web browser. It entirely changed my perception of web programming.
I intend to program an on-line browser-based game with some friends of mine later in the year (in Python of course -- I converted them), and now that I've seen what XML and XSL can do, we're so going to use them for data output: the data is in dynamically-generated XML, which links to a (static) XSL stylesheet to tell the browser how to render that data.
Doing things that way has many advantages:
1) Data is separate from formatting. That's always a Good Thing(TM). If I someday decide that I don't like the way the site looks, I theoretically only need to recreate a stylesheet, without touching anything else. (boom! Instant skins!)
2) Most of the "HTML rendering" is going to be done by the user's browser. This, and the way XSL stylesheets are constructed will prevent many bad HTML issues.
3) For the same reason, it will save bandwidth. The XML data will probably take less space than the fully-formatted stuff I'd have to spit out with "regular" HTML, and the XSL stylesheet can probably be cached by the user's browser.
4) In the same line of reasoning, it'll also save CPU time: XML data, being smaller, is generated faster than the equivalent HTML. Granted, the stylesheet is another server request, but it's static, so it puts virtually no load on a server.
-- Max
maxnoel_fr at yahoo dot fr -- ICQ #85274019
"Look at you hacker... A pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors... How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?"
maxnoel_fr at yahoo dot fr -- ICQ #85274019
"Look at you hacker... A pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors... How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?"
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