SpyderTL wrote:
I mentioned earlier that I was pretty well convinced that XML wouldn't be terribly useful for cross platform application development.
It is better to keep looking for the advantages of the XML. For example the nice part of XSLT is it's ability to work efficiently with such powerful abstraction as pattern matching. So, may be there is some way of redefining OS architecture as a set of components with pattern based interaction or something like this. It is an old idea about pattern driven systems with some works on it done in prolog and lisp. May be XSLT can add some value here?
SpyderTL wrote:
you really only need two "keywords" or instructions to build an application using existing functionality -- one to define variables, and one to call methods.
We really only need a Turing-machine with it's simplest state-action relations as a program. But such abstraction is not very convenient. However, the state-action definition in XML with the XSLT as an actual state to action connecting vehicle, can be an interesting exercise.
SpyderTL wrote:
You may also need a few for program flow control: loop, if then else, etc. But that's pretty much it.
It's the same problem for languages like prolog - with the power in a different area than the standard control of flow they still somehow manage to attract our attention.
SpyderTL wrote:
So an application written in high level XML would probably be a lot of elements of the same type, which is highly redundant. So I'm trying to find something else to use for that.
If there would be another language then it will be not an XML-OS. As long as your competence is with XML it is better to leverage it as much as possible. May be you will invent a new way of writing XML with the help of home made IDE? So when you type:
Code:
int x = 0
the IDE translates it to:
Code:
<variable name="x" type="System.Integer" value="0"/>