Re: [Fwd: Uses of DSSSL]

[christo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Frank Christoph)]

Vivek Agrawala <vivek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> A while ago we discussed the importance of good DSSSL
> applications in spreading its use.
> 
> According to the standard, the main use of DSSSL
> seems to be for applications of this type:
>    Generate different presentation formats like
>    RTF/TeX/HTML/MIF from one SGML source
>    (including processing/filtering of the content).
> 
> However, SGML can also be used to represent computer programs.
> Then, DSSSL could be used for program analysis & source-to-source
> transformations.  I think Paul mentioned program specifications
> earlier today.  Is anyone else thinking of using DSSSL for this
> type of work?

I have some serious doubts about the usefulness of SGML for representing
program source, at least the source of extant languages.  The strength of
SGML is not the fact that it allows data to be tagged and nested; any
programming language worth its salt has equivalent and, hopefully, much
more powerful mechanisms for data representation.  The strength of SGML
is that it allows _text_ to be tagged, and that there is a standardized
way of parsing such text.  Most programming languages don't deal that
much with text, except in an indirect way, so what is the point of turning
the whole abstract syntax tree into SGML?  Yes, you can now transform
the programs using an international standard, but so what?  SGML doesn't
capture the important parts of the program source --- the semantics.  That's
what programming languages are for.

  -- FC

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