Re: [boost] RFC: Boost.XML API prototype in the sandbox

From: John Moeller (fishcorn_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-07-12 03:38:20

David Abrahams wrote:
> Okay, this is going to sound very opinionated:
> 
>   I find XML horrible to read, however I find most of the procedural
>   code I've seen for manipulating it even more horrible.

Agreed.  Much of the time, I find myself defining wrapper RAII classes 
to handle the tags.

> [snip]
> 
>     root.push_front(
>         tag("articleinfo")[
>              title ? (comment("This title was moved"), title) : NULL
>            , tag("author")[
>                  tag("firstname")["Joe"],
>                  tag("surname")["Random"]
>              ]
>         ]
>     )

I like this syntax; it was a little awkward for me at first, but it's 
grown on me.

Would this allow you to also save a "template" for later modification? 
Something like:

tag articleinfo = tag("articleinfo") [
     tag("author") [
         tag("firstname") [""],
         tag("surname") [""]
     ]
];

...

articleinfo["author"]["firstname"] = "Joe";
articleinfo["author"]["surname"] = "Random";

I would find this use case to be handy.

-- 
John Moeller
fishcorn_at_[hidden]