- Increasing the spread of Component Pascal & BlackBox

From: Bob Walkden <"Bob>
Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 21:39:52 +0100

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> What alternative would you suggest? Are there any?
>

XML has become something of a Procrustean bed, and many applications have
been forced to fit into it, when it was not designed to fit them.

If its original purpose was to be a language for data interchange then a
better alternative for most purposes is EBNF. It may be that EBNF is not
well-suited for languages that are not LL(1) and XML may be better for those
(I am not qualified to know for sure), but even if this is the case I am
sure that some other variant of BNF would be far better.

XML is also being touted for databases and query languages, but it is no
better, and probably even worse, than a reformulation of the old hierarchic
(or at best network) models of data, which were thoroughly routed by Codd et
al. over 30 years ago. Unfortunately our industry has no memory, and equates
'new' with 'better'. A better alternative is the relational model (but not
SQL).

Also unfortunately XML now has a great deal of momentum which cannot be
ignored, and something better like EBNF will probably never displace it for
the same reasons that Oberon & CP will never displace the likes of C#, VB
etc.

Whenever I think of XML, I think of Dijkstra's comments about COBOL, which
apply equally:

"with respect to COBOL you can really do only one of two things: fight the
disease or pretend that it does not exist"
"COBOL is for morons"
"The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be
regarded as a criminal offence"

Regards,

Bob

--- BlackBox
--- send subject HELP or UNSUBSCRIBE to blackbox{([at]})nowhere.xy



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Received on Sun May 21 2006 - 22:39:52 UTC

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