Re: Jason is getting MARRIED!

From: Robert Ramey (ramey_at_[hidden])
Date: 2019-11-17 22:58:32

On 11/17/19 11:58 AM, Robert Ramey via Boost wrote:
> On 11/17/19 11:41 AM, James E. King III via Boost wrote:
>> On Sun, Nov 17, 2019 at 11:06 AM Robert Ramey via Boost
> 
> Hmmm - did you read the above?  Of course serialization could support 
> JSON, YAML, or even some version of the english language.  But this 
> would not mean the the archive is editable unless it's write only. The 
> problem is that the archive contents are strictly dependent upon t
Off topic - nothing to do with parsing - but interesting and sort of 
related.

write only archives in fact do have a usage.  Suppose you want to create 
some sort of log - debug, transaction, etc....  It's a pain to include 
all that formating code in your app - especially since you're not 
usually using it.  And you've mixed in the formating into your program 
creating a maintainence PITA.  Its worse since the minute you do that 
everyone and his brother will want a different format or for the screen 
or PDF or ...

Solution - a write only XML archive!

Create the XML archive and write to in the normal serialization way. 
Then let every user use his own XSLT script to transform into doc book 
or whatever.  Then using docbook-> hmtl, or docbook pdf, or -> ... to 
produce his desired output.  Actually since the archive is write only, 
you could also edit it using your favorite XML editor.

This is rich territory that so far no one (besides myself) has ever 
mined.  Ironically, the one person who thought it was a waste of time to 
invest effort in an XML archive (me) is likely the only person who every 
found a useful purpose for it (besides debugging).

Robert Ramey