On 7/11/07, Stefan Seefeld <seefeld@sympatico.ca> wrote:
David Abrahams wrote:
[snipped]
Do you think the above syntax would replace the procedural API, or merely complement it ? While I can see the appeal of such a declarative approach, I'm not sure how well that fits into a broader picture where users want to use the same API not only to build a document, but traverse it, remove and replace elements, etc.
FWIW, if a declarative syntax were available, I wouldn't find much need for a procedural API, except where it weren't possible at all. Pursuing a very easy-to-use syntax should be the goal, IMHO, in a XML boost library.
To me, right now, what you propose looks mostly like syntactic sugar, which can be worked on as a refinement once the basic (and common) API is established.
It is mostly syntactic sugar that you're defining. Anyone can use libxml2 directly if syntactic sugar isn't needed or desirable. [snip]
Stefan
-- Felipe Magno de Almeida