Re: Ada Reference Manual 2012 in info format

["Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de>]

On Wed, 09 May 2012 11:51:22 -0500, Jerrid Kimball wrote:

>   However, XML is a huge player on many fronts for a number of reasons 
> including being easily readable by humans and being standardized.

Ah, I see, but then I really fail to understand the problem with RM. If XML
and HTML are human readable what is the buzz about its design? Anybody can
open the document's source in the notepad, even in Emacs (sic!), and enjoy
highly readable angular brackets in their lucid clarity unhindered by
intervention of nasty page renderers... (:-))

> There 
> are, of course, instances where XML has been abused in very horrible 
> ways--what hasn't been (Yes, even Ada has been.  You know it!)--but this 
> in no way precludes it from being used for its intended purpose as a 
> language for describing documents.

Describing? Not designing, also? 

> I'm not entirely sure of the endianness of your numbers (you specified 
> everything except the most obvious), but I imagine it could be reduced 
> to a single tag.  It would depend on a lot of factors, but something 
> like this doesn't seem out of the question:
> 
> <multiply>
>     <left>31</left>
>     <right>56</right>
> </multiple>
> 
> or dare I suggest:
> 
> <multiply operands="31 56" /> <!-- multiplication is commutative after 
> all -->
> 
> or have I gone too far?

I am afraid yes. You are just one step away from <f>"32*56"</f>, and two
from (God save us for such an unreadable gibberish): 32*56! (:-))
 
> Of course DSA has to represent things across the line.  I haven't done a 
> whole lot with it, so far.  How does GIOP send data across the line?

We are using our own binary protocol to exchange data.

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de