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Re: [Axiom-developer] Re: converting sexps to XML
From: |
Bob McElrath |
Subject: |
Re: [Axiom-developer] Re: converting sexps to XML |
Date: |
Wed, 29 Jun 2005 12:25:06 -0700 |
User-agent: |
Mutt/1.5.6+20040523i |
address@hidden address@hidden wrote:
> Hello Bob,
>
> On 28 Jun 2005 at 13:26, Bob McElrath wrote:
>
> > I think these two ideas are very distinct. A latex document is
> > processed from top to bottom, once. A change requires essentially a
> > re-compile of the entire document.
>
> I don't agree with you on that point : I have devised a software
> (AsTeX assistant) that allows to tune parts of TeX/LateX documents by
> selecting small portions of the document and displaying it without
> compiling the whole document - for example select a formula or part of
> formula, or part of a table - and display only the formula, or part of
> the formula or table or etc.. You have just to select the portion of
> document in your favorite editor (Emacs, or any other editor, even
> Word), click on the Display button of AA, and the selected portion is
> displayed in the dvi viewing window. You can even use predefined
> commands such as \def\g{\gamma} defined outside the selected text
> (say, defined in a special file such as mymacros.tex), or commands
> defined in LaTeX packages. For illustrations, cf.
So you have essentially forced a DOM on top of an otherwise free-form
latex document.
The distiction is that in a free-form latex document I can create an
invalid document. Using a DOM I must insert only well-formed parts.
(e.g. every \begin{name} must have a corresponding \end{name})
This can be done, and I'm not surprised someone did it because the idea
of a DOM is quite powerful. However, it is not something tex was
designed to do. Since tex is a programming language I'm sure there is
some combination of macros I could define in the preamble which would
totally break enforcing your DOM.
On the other hand, XML is *not* a programming language, it is solely a
data structure. This conforms to the "principle of least power":
http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Principles.html
(at the bottom). I ran into that page the other day and found it quite
compelling. I wouldn't call myself an XML aficionado, but as long as I
don't have to actually *type* an xml document and *type* angle brackets,
I might be able to live with it...and the interface possibilities are
truly stunning. (I'm going to send some SVG examples and info in a day
or two)
TeX, lisp, and sexps are all turing-complete languages. Therefore it is
always possible to do *anything at all* in them.
However separating what is data, what is interface, and what does
computation allows our wee human brains to organize effectively.
--
Cheers,
Bob McElrath [Univ. of California at Davis, Department of Physics]
"One of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen
these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding
fathers used in the great struggle for independence." --Charles A. Beard
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