Re: Registration of media type application/calendar+xml

[Phillip Hallam-Baker <[e-mail]>]

On Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 10:48 AM,
<[e-mail]<[e-mail]>
> wrote:

>
> Even if XML-specific tools like stylesheets prove less than useful in
> performing manipulations of calendar data, there's still significant
> benefit
> associated with being able to use built in parsing capbilities, espcially
> when
> those capabilites are nicely tied to automatic creation of complex data
> stuctures in various languages.
>

What many XML-haters do not understand is that the syntax is designed to
completely automate the process of writing the parser and the backing data
classes.

Starting with an XML Schema definition I can generate the corresponding data
structures automatically with one mouse click together with the
corresponding parser/serializer calls.


Starting from an EBNF description, I have to first read the description.
This has already taken more time than working with the XML version would.

I then have to work out if the grammar is an FSM or LR(1) or something else.
When I was a grad student I used to write yacc parsers but these days I have
written enough parser generators that I can actually hand code quicker than
it takes me working round the peculiarities of yacc.

So what takes me no time at all with XML is likely to take a couple of days
and considerably more skill with EBNF.


Of course this approach works best in modern languages like Java and C# but
I have generated similar tools for C and I am pretty sure the same tools
exist for objective C. Its going to suck somewhat if you are coding in
FORTRAN or Pascal.

-- 
Website: http://hallambaker.com/