XML-Conformant Programming Languages

[Joshua E. Smith]

>As far as "Visual Programming" environments go (especially for "non
>programmers") I think it is invaluable to have the ability to step through
>the code and see what is happening which implies an IDE rather than a simple
>editor.

That's a really good point, and it's probably why I won't be able to get
away without writing an IDE forever.  However, there are some pretty good
examples of languages for which an integerated editor/debugger came long
after acceptance (thinking javascript here).

By then, though, there will be some great XML editor in open source written
in Java, and I can extend someone else's editor, rather than writing my
own! ;)

Or maybe we can all agree on some APIs (God, let it not be ActiveX!) which
editors should provide, so we can tell them (from a running program) to
highlight a given line and character position, to add an item (like "Stop
Here") to their menu bar, etc.

I could see that being useful even when you use XML for more traditional
document applications (imagine being able to single-step through the
interpretation of the document by your formatter and being able to show the
user what all the &entities are expanding into).


-Joshua Smith


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