XML syntax (DOM really) as an optional syntax for XML Path Langua ge (XPath)

The non-xml syntax of XPATH does of course make it inconvenient for people
to use existing document manipulation programs (those that understand the
document object model) to manipulate and/or make statements about paths
themselves. 

So you've got a situation where documents are first class objects, and parts
of objects are first class, but the pointers themselves are beyond the power
of the other language tools to directly manipulate. Maybe that isn't unusual
in languages. Avoiding "pointer arithmetic" if you will.

This probably wasn't done to create a barrier to entry for programs that
manipulate paths, because anyone, even me, can appreciate the strangeness of
a syntax where double-quoted attribute values contain large amounts of
amp-gt and amp-lt sillyness. 

Would it be worthwhile to create a mapping between the DOM and the
PATH/expression language as an option?
This in order to avoid incompatibilities between systems which maintain
document path information.

Documents are getting cheaper and cheaper of course, but good pointers are
getting more and more valuable, and therefore eventually subject to
considerable interest in terms of reuse and validation.

I'm working on a project which would keep and reuse information about
document paths and it would be wonderful to be compatible with other efforts
involving elements of that problem domain.

Received on Tuesday, 30 November 1999 14:47:44 UTC