XML <-> non-XML filter project

[James Tauber]

Earlier this month, I posted the following to XSL-LIST. With apologies to
those who received it there, I'm posting it (modified) here to see if anyone
is interested in some co-operative effort in this area.

What I would like to see is people taking existing non-XML formats and
developing:

     a) a URI for the non-XML format (for notations and for the namespace of
the XML format)
     b) a DTD representing the existing non-XML format
     c) an output filter to convert documents conforming to the DTD into the
non-XML format
     d) (possibly) an input filter to convert the non-XML format into XML

There are individual cases of this sort of thing[1] but I would like to see
some sort of co-operative effort to produce a large number of these things.
I'm not envisaging complex filters, just a simple XML representation of the
non-XML format so that purely XML tools like editors, query engines, XSL
engines can operate on non-XML formats. There are plently of applications
including generation of these files on the basis of other XML documents (I
need this for Makefiles on my websites) and literate programming.

I would personally find great value in this being done for Makefiles,
procmail files, simple shell scripts and PalmPilot databases. Others of
value I can think of include Windows INI files, Unix mailboxes, your
favourite programming language...

If there is enough interest I am more than willing to coordinate these
efforts. Just let me know.

James

[1] http://www.xmlsoftware.com/convert/



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