Re: Don't you need an XML Virtual Machine ?

Oliver Wong wrote:

"Roedy Green" <my_email_is_posted_on_my_website@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:a97o22l41cobglsm36hvh5qcs4p9pt36b9@xxxxxxxxxx

On Thu, 30 Mar 2006 18:01:04 GMT, Roedy Green
<my_email_is_posted_on_my_website@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote, quoted or
indirectly quoted someone who said :

I mean : people that have a knowledge of computer sciences can use
RefleX even if they don't know Java, because entire applications can be
written exclusively with tags in RefleX. But if you want to embed some
existing Java classes, you're welcome !


Which is obviously far more awkward than coding in Java.


For example, show the following piece of Java code in XML


if ( s.endsWith( ".txt ) && s.length() > 5 )
{
System.out ( s + " is a text file" );
}
else
{
s = null;
}


Isn't that a single instruction?

<testIsTextFileByExtensionAndEmitToConsoleElseSetToNull ref="s"/>

:)

possible, although very useless


Actually, I took a look at their site, and the language does not look much easier to learn than Java, though it is quite concise for writing of web apps. Personally, I find declarative programming confusing, and prefer procedural, so I'd use PHP over this RefleX language,

RefleX in not a language, it's an engine where several XML languages can be run

I called this executable XML "Active Tags" ; Active Tags just specifies a behaviour, not how you could implement it

if I wanted
to write up a quick and dirty web app, but maybe that's just my personal opinion.

To the OP, I don't think you should market this as "easier to learn than Java", especially in this newsgroup, because most people here already KNOW Java, and so the "barrier of learning Java" isn't even an issue for them. Look for other strengths in the product, and focus on those instead.

it's not a barrier, as you can also use Java if you like, but you're true, it's better to focus on RefleX's strengths ; there are many reasons for which you should prefer Active Tags instead of other similar technologies like PHP/ASP/JSP/Cocoon/etc :

-those mentioned above are all dedicated to a Web environment, whereas RefleX can run XML programs in a Web environment as well as from the command-line

-try to define a schema language with any of them ; it wouldn't be obvious (at best), or would be simply impossible (at worst) ! RefleX embeds one called the Active Schema Language, which goes a step further than DTD, W3C XML Schema, and Relax NG (for example, ASL allows to design dynamic content models and design semantic data types)

-there are also some smart features in Active Tags not available with its competitors : in Active Tags you can consider some non-XML objects as XML-friendly : use XPath to access them and apply XUpdate-like operations to modify them

-programs written with Active Tags (that are called Active Sheets) can dramatically decrease the amount of code to produce (we used it in a production environment at INRIA for a real application, and estimate that the number of lines to code was reduced to 10% (comparison with the hypothetic lines of Java to write))

-you can extend Active Tags with custom modules (libraries) ; you can design declarative-oriented grammar -which are very concise and expressive- and make them runnable within RefleX ; RefleX also allows to switch from declarative sentences to imperative instructions when you have reached the intrinsic limits of the declarative grammar

-RefleX is self-descriptive, it is built upon itself : any built-in or custom module is an application of RefleX ; Active Tags foundations are very sane, based on the cooperation of few core modules, each focusing on a single well-defined problematic

-you can define custom tags and functions with other tags (a kind of macro mechanism)

-Active Tags is easy to use and easy to learn : what you need is only a knowledge of computer sciences in general, XML + namespaces + XPath ; Active Sheets are easy to read

-you can design entire applications with RefleX without writting any Java code ; but you can also embed your own Java classes

-etc

now, Active Tags is very young, but it certainly bring some renewal in XML technologies

I'm aware that Active Tags looks like JSP, JSTL/taglibs, XSLT, Ant, Jelly, XMLBeans, Cocoon, etc ; I even hope that everyone recognize a little of each in Active Tags, because Active Tags is a kind of "all-in-one"

--
Cordialement,

///
(. .)
--------ooO--(_)--Ooo--------
| Philippe Poulard |
-----------------------------
http://reflex.gforge.inria.fr/
Have the RefleX !
.