Subject: Re: "Well, I want to switch over to replace EMACS LISP with Guile."
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.no>
Date: 29 Sep 2002 02:28:24 +0000
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3242255304507299@naggum.no>

* Tim Josling
| XML is an encoding format, no more than that.

  You may find it illuminating to do a web search on my name and SGML.

| It is a pretty good encoding format because it is relatively simple and
| semi-human-readable, though verbose. Compare with the alteratives - ad hoc
| binary formats or the IEEE's binary format monstrosity whose name I forget.

  As long as you actually believe that such are the alternatives, yes, XML is
  better than the completely braindamaged.  However, if you start to think
  about the problem, XML starts to become an idiotic non-solution that only
  creates more problems than it solves.  It has all the disadvantages of an ad
  hoc binary format, and none of the benefits -- namely compactness and
  version sensitivity.

  I am actually flabbergasted that anyone reading comp.lang.lisp would /not/
  understand how to make something better than XML and even carp on this
  "ad-hoc binary format" non-argument.  You /do/ realize that Common Lisp
  offers a ready-made data syntax, as well, do you not?

| But it is not a content model. It does not try to be a content model. It
| does not define what any/every tag means. You have to define the content
| model.  Sometimes the tag name gives you an idea what the field means.

  Again, do a quick search for the SGML bibliography.  You may find that you
  have embarrassed yourself, but if you have any new arguments that I have not
  heard in the past 12 years, please feel free to present them after you have
  familiarized yourself with what I have done in the SGML arena.

| You can't blame this on XML.

  I can, and I do.  Languages come with philosophies from which they cannot be
  separated.  The XML philosphy is stale, stupid, and counter-productive
  relative to its own stated goals, among which the most important was supposed
  to be the independence of data from the application, which is actually worse
  with XML than even /your/ "alternatives".

-- 
Erik Naggum, Oslo, Norway                 Today, the sum total of the money I
                                          would retain from the offers in the
more than 7500 Nigerian 419 scam letters received in the past 33 months would
have exceeded USD 100,000,000,000.  You can stop sending me more offers, now.