RE: [xsl] XSLT Architecture: Next Step

[Wendell Piez <wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My $0.02 on an obscure and difficult, but simple point,

At 07:12 PM 7/3/2003, Bill wrote:
> Didier Says...
>
> <As you know, XML is not a language per se but more a set of rules used to
> created languages. The main advantage is that these produced languages share
> a common syntax and therefore some generic tools can be used for an entire
> family of languages. One of these generic tool is XSLT. >
>
> Actually XML is very much a language; i.e., it has a well defined set of
> terminal symbols and a grammar describing which strings are acceptable as
> strings of the language. Obviously there are a number of parsers out there
> that utilize this language definition in order to parse these strings.

Speaking as a student of "language", I note that both of you are correct. 
The word "language" is (correctly) used in (at least) two senses. Bill 
notes how in a formal definition useful to developers of computer 
processors, XML fits the definition of a language in that it has a grammar, 
etc. But Didier is also correct, in that XML does not define what might be 
called an "application language" (something that describes/instructs 
something), but rather is a framework within which such can be implemented.

It's especially confusing since XSLT both is such an application language, 
and is designed to work on (therefore refer to, describe, specify) such a 
language. XSLT and XML are both "meta-languages" in that

* XML uses language (the XML Rec's definition of well-formedness; also 
schemas etc.) to describe rules to make or specify a language (an 
"application tag set")

* XSLT deploys a language (including XPath) to describe inputs and outputs 
of a process of linguistic translation or transformation

Readers who enjoy such bewilderments can find more in my Extreme paper of 
last year, a copy of which appears at 
http://www.piez.org/wendell/papers/signsystems.pdf.

Cheers,
Wendell

___&&__&_&___&_&__&&&__&_&__&__&&____&&_&___&__&_&&_____&__&__&&_____&_&&_
    "Thus I make my own use of the telegraph, without consulting
     the directors, like the sparrows, which I perceive use it
     extensively for a perch." -- Thoreau


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