[REBOL] XML support in Rebol
From: pwawood::mango::net::my at: 20-Dec-2004 11:52
In an interview at O'Reilly's OnJava (HYPERLINK
http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2004/12/15/erh-interview.html
http://www
..onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2004/12/15/erh-interview.html), Elliotte Rusty
Harold, THE Java XML man (HYPERLINK
http://www.cafeaulait.org
http://www.cafeaulait.org , HYPERLINK
http://www.cafeconleche.org
http://www.cafeconleche.org) makes a number of
good points about XML:
Perl lagged for several years in the XML space because it wasn't yet
Unicode-savy, and Larry Wall first had to Unicode-enable Perl before he (or
anyone else) could think seriously about supporting XMll.
One of the major impedance mismatches between Java and XML is that a Java
char is not in fact a Unicode character; rather it is a UTF-16 code point.
Lisp programmers wear different glasses; they insist on seeing XML as
simply S-expressions with angle brackets instead of parentheses, a model
that's only marginally closer to reality.
The only proper way to approach XML is by understanding and accepting its
unique structure without trying to force it to fit some other paradigm, be
that paradigm objects, S-expressions, records and fields, or something
else.
Of course, XML isn't a patch on Rebol values when it comes to swapping data
between different platform. It is however getting to be used more and more
often in system-to-system interconnectivity.
Is the XML support good enough for Rebol to be used as a "universal system
connector"?
Regards
Peter
