Yes XML is NOT a programming language.
But what to think of XSL-T?
It is!
Gerard
|-----Original Message-----
|From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
|[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Roy Roebuck
|Sent: zaterdag 8 januari 2000 21:03
|To: XML EDI Listserver (E-mail)
|Subject: RE: XML as Programming Language??? Surely Not!
|
|
|Hi Kurt:
|
|Good response. You've provided a useful Programming Language
|feature definition correlation with XML features.
|
|If going strictly from standards, a Markup Language is a language,
|but it is not a "Programming" language? Standard XML now,
|clearly, is not a programming language. In the future, as more
|functionality becomes standard, perhaps it will be.
|
|Roy
|
|-----Original Message-----
|From: Kurt Cagle [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
|Sent: Saturday, January 08, 2000 2:09 PM
|To: Roy Roebuck
|Subject: Re: XML as Programming Language??? Surely Not!
|
|
|Roy,
|I would agree with you that XML, if taken solely to mean the W3C XML
|Specification of 1998, is not a programming language. However, when you
|start adding in all of the associated XML technologies, the distinction
|becomes much, much fuzzier. Consider the definitions of a program
|
|1) A program is a transformative entity, converting data from one
|representation to another. This describes XSL-T
|2) A programming language has the ability to perform logically analysis
|based upon parameterized values. This also describes XSL-T.
|3) A programming language has the ability to create conditional looping
|structures. XSL-T again.
|4) A language typically can link in with other language components. This
|describes X-Link.
|5) A language allows for the creation of local variables of
|information. XML
|entities nicely fit that bill.
|6) A language has one or more ways of addressing information contained
|within its space. XPath.
|7) A language usually has external links to both input and output streams.
|This is the essence of XML/XSL.
|
| Let's take a more stringent look at XML as OOPL.
|1) Any OOPL provides the triad of Encapsulation, Inheritance and
|Polymorphism. Once XML Schema gets ratified, all three of these aspects
|will be in there (look at Archetypes, for example).
|2) Most OOPLs also have the notion of data-typing, both at the
|primitive and
|at the aggregate level. XML Schema again.
|3) OOPLs contain abilities to call methods, raise events, and access
|properties.
|
|This is the one that needs to be examined most closely, because I
|think this
|is where the "This is not a programming language usually comes down to".
|The current implementation of XSL-T gives you the ability to "call" XSL
|templates with parameterization. As these calls are usually done on
|specific nodes of the XML structure, this is roughly analogous to
|the method
|call stack. Events on the other hand are a function of the specific XML
|server implementation, although most have some form of eventing.
|
|Can XML exist is an independent language -- no, of course not .. in
|uncompiled form. Can C++ exist as an independent language ...
|well, no, not
|in an uncompiled form.
|
|So tell me, how is XML not a language?
|
|-- Kurt Cagle
|
|
|----- Original Message -----
|From: "Roy Roebuck" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
|To: "XML EDI Listserver (E-mail)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
|Sent: Saturday, January 08, 2000 9:33 AM
|Subject: XML as Programming Language??? Surely Not!
|
|
|> The characterization of XML as a programming language is interesting, but
|seems false. One could program the behaviors of the named structural
|entities tagged using XML compliant text markup, by applying some
|behavior-descriptive language (e.g., script [ECMAScript, VBScript,
|JavaScript, etc.], procedural [C, Perl], object-oriented [C++, Java], or
|hybrids [Python, PHP]), but XML itself doesn't provide any more than tree,
|associative, change, or streaming structure. XML provides named entities
|and structure, programming provides behavior. Even when UML applies XML to
|exchange system models/knowledge with other UML-enabled tools/repositories,
|the behavioral aspects of the models/knowledge are defined using the UML
|tools, not XML.
|>
|>
|> Ref. earlier threads:
|>
|> "....I agree mostly with Michael's point. I'll restate and expand: xml is
|a programming language with a facility to define and structure data....."
|>
|> "...I disagree with you when you classify XML as a programming language.
|It is at a higher level than that, in the way it frees you to model the
|entities, the processes and even the language with which express your
|processes...."
|>
|> "....How can XML as a programming language ever replaces a set of
|standards or format like EDI?..."
|>
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