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.
I would like to see a more declarative syntax for much of this stuff.
element_ptr info = root->insert_element(root->begin_children(), "articleinfo"); if (title) { info->insert(info->begin_children(), title); info->insert_comment(info->begin_children(), "This title was moved"); } element_ptr author = info->append_element("author"); element_ptr firstname = author->append_element("firstname"); firstname->set_content("Joe"); element_ptr surname = author->append_element("surname"); surname->set_content("Random");
could be something like:
root.push_front( tag("articleinfo")[ title ? (comment("This title was moved"), title) : NULL , tag("author")[ tag("firstname")["Joe"], tag("surname")["Random"] ] ] )
You could use Boost.Parameter to do attributes, or use runtime attributes like
tag("div", attr("class") = "someclass")[ ... ]
You might be familiar with Nevow's STAN, which I had a hand in. This suggestion is reminiscent of that.
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. 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.
PS: The current scope of the project is described in http://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/browser/sandbox/xml/README
Another suggestion: use the .rst extension for ReST documents -- Trac will preview them formatted via ReST
Sure, will do. I hadn't even thought of the README as a ReST document. :-) I'll migrate more things to boost conventions as I have time to work on it.
[Oh, and I suggest you get the tab characters out of your code)
That, too. Thanks, Stefan -- ...ich hab' noch einen Koffer in Berlin...