Re: XML tools for Octave

[John W. Eaton]

On 30-Jun-2006, Dmitri A. Sergatskov wrote:

| RSXML project (XML parser for R) has some interesting documents, including
| arguments why one would want to have an XML parser in scientific computing
| system.
| 
| http://www.omegahat.org/RSXML/Overview.html

I'm not questioning the usefulness of "self-describing data".

I'm questioning the implementation of it in the form of XML, which is
apparently difficult (or impossible) to parse unambiguously.  So what
is the value of having a common format for data exchange if it is so
hard to write a parser for the data that the various parsers all get
some details wrong?  Or they present the data to different
applications in strangely different ways?  Or the parsers are perfect,
but work at such a low level that the rest is left up to the users so
that we end up with N different implementations of the data readers,
none of which work properly?

But as I said earlier, I really don't know much about XML, and it is
apparently too late to object anyway, since it is now widely used.
OTOH, as my mother used to say, "If all your friends jumped off a
bridge, would you do it too?"

jwe