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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>XML seems to be devoted to putting data markup into
documents so programs, like search engines, can understand the content on those
documents. But what of forms processing?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Lets say we had a DTD with a list of data
conforming to the DTD (many data items). This data could represent a name file
with lots of customer name and contact information. The form could be a letter
for that data to be merged into. The DTD is designed to represent the customer
name file data.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>ie DTD defining
field details in customer Name file</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Name file data</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FirstName> Fred </FirstName>
<Surname>Bloggs</Surname></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><Address1>123 some street</Address1>
<Suburb>Some Suburb</Suburb></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><Town>Bunyip<FONT face=Arial
size=2></Town>
<State>Victoria</State> <PostCode>
4100 </PostCode>
<Country>Australia</Country></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FirstName>Brian </FirstName>
<Surname>Browns</Surname></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><Address1>Another street</Address1>
<Suburb>Another Suburb</Suburb></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><Town>Drouin<FONT face=Arial
size=2></Town><State>Victoria</State> <PostCode>
4100 </PostCode> <Country>
Australia</Country></FONT></FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Document XSL</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Litebook Computers P/L (letter
head etc.......)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> <FONT face=Arial
size=2><FirstName> <Surname></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> <FONT face=Arial
size=2><Address1> </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> <Suburb> <State>
<PostCode> </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> <Country></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear <FONT face=Arial
size=2><FirstName></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> As you have probably heard in
the media XML is the comming standard for Internet but how will it work for
other functions like mail merge, document interchange such as invoices,
statements order form processing from company to company - accounting system to
accounting system?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Does every accounting system have to store its data
in relational or other structure and do a transformation to XML or can the
accounting system store its data in XML format, even though it might not be as
efficient a data storage method.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial
size=2>-------------------------------------</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>There are parallel data storage formats PICK uses
an attribute marker for data storage and so can have a storage structure which
is a linited syntax tree</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Attribute marker characters are chars 255, 254,
253</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Eg:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>customer name | address 1 | Suburb | State |
Postcode | Invoices | 12312312/ 1233423 / 455664 / 464646 / 46456 / 786886 /
77669 / 8790890 / 8908008/ ~</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>where | is char 254 and / is char 253 ~ is char 255
(end of record)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This structure allows pick programmers to store a
unlimited list of invoice numbers in the customer's record.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial
size=2>-------------------------------------</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Another data structure type is MUMPS where the
storage unit is unique key = Data item,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The key is a sparse array eg Global
^Debtors would have</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>^Debtors(ShortName, Litebook, Inv 123) = "123 |
25/12/90 | $230.00 | $23.00 |"</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2>^Debtors(ShortName,
Litebook, Inv 123, item1) = "Sof123 | Software program for parsing XML | 1only |
$220.00"</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>MUMPS has a $piece function string = $P(<FONT
face=Arial size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2>^Debtors(ShortName, Litebook, Inv 123,
item1) ,"|",2)</FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>would yeild string = "Software program for parsing
XML"</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>-------------------------------------</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>To me it appears that XML offers the programmer a
much more sophisicated data structure than any previously imagined. A well
structered symble table of variables seems to offer the programmer a much better
easier applications building approach BUT there is a tangle of data and screen
markup like <font "size = 10"> and form details like the letter head etc..
which is not data and not interesting to the applications programmer, only of
interest to the viewer.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>How would one keep real data separate from display
markups and screen text words like "INVOICE" etc????</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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