Re: What is a pragma?

Norm Tovey-Walsh writes:

> It isn’t necessary, or even likely, that we'll all agree that pragmas
> are the right way to handle every one of these cases. But if we can
> all see the utility of pragmas for *some* of these cases, even if we
> don’t agree on which ones, then it makes sense to specify some sort of
> structured pragma mechanism for ixml.

For what it's worth, I think the right way to handle almost all of the
use cases you mention (certainly almost all of the ones Tom and I
identified) would be by changes in the specification of ixml.

But since that way of handling them is available only to the group as a
whole, any implementor who wants to handle them *now* has a choice
between handling them with pragmas or handling them by non-standard
changes to the syntax or semantics of ixml.  And given that choice, I
think pragmas are a better way to handle them than effectively forking
ixml.

> A few additional use cases for pragmas that occur to us:

> ## Manipulating processor warnings

> Requests that warnings are output if certain conditions arise, even if
> those conditions are not normally cause for a warning.

Or suppressing warnings that might otherwise be given.

> ## Choosing an output parse
>
> If more than one valid parse is found, uses a set of requirements to
> select a preferred parse for the vxml output.

Nice one.


Michael


-- 
C. M. Sperberg-McQueen
Black Mesa Technologies LLC
http://blackmesatech.com

Received on Friday, 28 January 2022 20:52:02 UTC