From: Chad Fowler <chad@...>
Date: 2003-10-03T02:09:26+09:00
Subject: Re: xml in Ruby or no xml it's just a question

On Fri, 3 Oct 2003, paul vudmaska wrote:

# >>--------
#  "Chad Fowler" <chad@chadfowler.com>
# Pretty much everything you've mentioned here is
# possible with REXML 
# --------------------<<
# Except the style. Besides, that was part of my point.
# 

Well, when  you say "style" I think you mainly mean syntax, right?  Other 
than XML being first-class syntax, the rest of the style you've proposed 
is do-able (and reflected quite well in Erik's posted code).

# >>--------
#  "Chad Fowler" <chad@chadfowler.com>
# I can't see how hard-wiring XML as a part of Ruby's
# syntax 
# provides much of a benefit at all.  It would be
# fashionable (though not 
# really all that fashionable these days), but barring
# that it's just 
# more 
# baggage to carry around. 
# ---------<<
# It's interesting to me that you would wrap an xml
# file(rss) in an object 
# http://www.chadfowler.com/ruby/rss/
# but belittle an offhanded attempt to make inherent
# those attributes that you so painstakingly crafted
# code for and call the former more baggage. Help me
# understand that, Chad!
# 

First of all, you could hardly call the process of creating that simple 
library painstaking.  The fact that I wrapped RSS parsing in an object 
demonstrates (though rather poorly considering the age of this code--see 
Austin Ziegler's replacement on SourceForge) my belief that things like this 
should be abstracted into *libraries* and not the language.  Someone else has 
created a CSV library.  We could include CSV as a native data type too.  
How about URIs?  We have uri.rb, but why shouldn't we be able to simply 
say:

myURI = http://www.ruby-lang.org

How about JPEG files?  With the right graphical programming environment, 
you could actually embed pictures into code.  myVar = <drag a png file 
into the editor>.  myPic.vertical_flip.  

# 
# >>--------
#  "Chad Fowler" <chad@chadfowler.com>
# 
# Interesting in the same way that Lojban is interesting
# 
# (http://www.lojban.org). :)
# --------------------<<
# for you!
# 

Don't you find Lojban interesting?

# 
# >>--------
#  "Chad Fowler" <chad@chadfowler.com>
# 
# Are we playing sports or writing programming
# languages?  I didn't know 
# it 
# was a competition.  Who are the enemies?  Is anyone on
# our team?
# --------------------<<
# 
# I'm just a simple scriptor making an open ended
# suggestion about a language that i enjoy in a forum
# that i would hope would encourage such things - even
# if they are stupid. What language are you writing,
# btw?  Just an analogy, maybe a bad one. Sorry.
# 

"We" as in the community, of course.  And the language would be ruby.  I 
certainly wasn't implying that I'm personally creating Ruby, but that's 
pretty obvious.  I was serious about the question I asked, though.  Why 
the competition?


# 
# 
# >>--------
# "Erik Terpstra" <erik@terpnet.nl>
# Last year I made a quick hack that could do something
# like that.
# I didn't have much experience with Ruby back then, so
# it is a quick and 
# very dirty solution. But the following works:
# ---------->
# 

Erik demonstrated the same point I was trying to make, but he had some 
working code  :)