[dsdl-discuss] XDuce

At Atlanta Murata-san suggested that we should review the XDuce (Transduce)
language as a possible way of undertaking transformations such as those done
in DSRL, etc.

Having looked at XDuce (http://xduce.sourceforge.net/examples.html) I note
the following points:

1) It not written as a specification but as software that runs on Unix
platforms only. The program is written in something called Standard ML
(which I could not make sense of through the Sourceforge references). There
is no documentation other than release notes associated with the program.

2) That XDuce adoptsa functional programming language, with statements of
the form:

  fun wrong {{X}} (val x as a[ty X]) : Any =
          filter x {
            (val y as a[ty X]) { y }
        }
rather than a set of XML declarations of transformation requirements.

3) XDuce's has a compact syntax whose values correspond to XML data; its
types correspond to DTDs. For example, the XDuce definition of:

addrbook[
  name["Haruo Hosoya"],
  addr["Tokyo"],
  name["Benjamin Pierce"],
  addr["Philadelphia"],
  tel["123-456-789"],
  name["Peter Buneman"],
  addr["Scotland"]]

corresponds to the following XML document:

<addrbook>
  <name>Haruo Hosoya</name>
  <addr>Tokyo</addr>
  <name>Benjamin Pierce</name>
  <addr>Philadelphia</addr>
  <tel>123-456-789</tel>
  <name>Peter Buneman</name>
  <addr>Scotland</addr>
</addrbook>

My inital reaction is that XDuceis not suitable for incorporation into DSDL,
and does not suggest any functionality that we need to add to our standard.
I am willing to be convinced otherwise by anyone with a Unix system who has
the time and inclination to explore the functionality of this program and
explain its advantages succinctly to the committee.

Martin

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