Re: DSSSL engine in LISP?

[Brandon Ibach <bibach@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Quoting Daniel Mahler <dmahler@xxxxxxxxxx>:
> I have read Paul Prescod's paper on this, but I do not really get it.
> As far as I know, groves are just annotated syntax trees.
> How do they help you address pieces of information inside
> a database or inside a PowerPoint presentation?
> (This is the what you and Paul are claiming right?)
> Do you build a grove representation of the entire database?
> What if the data is embedded in a a document
> in some proprietary format?
> 
> BTW Can someone define "grove plans" and "ESIS streams" <=50 words :)
> 
   I don't know about 50 words, but...
   A grove can represent any information.  It is made up of a
collection of nodes.  The nodes generally form a tree structure,
though technically, a grove is a directed graph.  Each node has a set
of properties.  The names, data types, and other aspects of a node's
properties are determined by the "class" of the node (which is,
itself, a property of the node).  Some properties are "nodal", meaning
that they refer to other nodes.  This is what forms the structure of
the grove.
   A "grove plan" lays out the classes and properties of nodes in a
particular grove.  So, there is an SGML Grove Plan which includes node
classes like "sgml-document", "element", "attribute-assignment" and
"char".
   For a more formal explanation of groves, read Chapter 9 of the
DSSSL spec.  For an even more formal one than that, I believe the
HyTime spec goes into even greater detail (right?).
   My understanding is that ESIS streams don't really have to do with
groves.  When you parse an SGML document, there is a whole range of
information that the parser can generate.  ESIS is just a standard
subset of this information.  I believe, if you just run the "nsgmls"
utility (from SP), it will generate ESIS for your document.

-Brandon :)


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