Re: Data table text I/O package?

[Georg Bauhaus <bauhaus@futureapps.de>]

Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:
> On Thu, 23 Jun 2005 00:24:30 +0200, Georg Bauhaus wrote:
> 
> 
>>Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:
>>
>>
>>>But for data exchange there are better techniques than XML.
>>
>>Such as ...?
> 
> 
> Take any middleware available.

Uhm, yes, such as ...?

> No, it is still one interval that contains the true number. This is the way 
> floating-point arithmetic functions. The result of a+b is c, such that 
> [c'Pred, c'Succ] contains the exact result. [*] The problem is that 'Pred 
> and 'Succ are of course machine dependent. So when you send c you should 
> also convey the range. Depending on that the receiver should chose an 
> appropriate internal representation for c, which might require a "true" 
> interval.

This amounts to specifying the precise details of a floating
point computation in a data stream; a rather special case I think.
Take for example prices, guesstimates of future price changes,
insurance rates, direction of tomorrow's winds, day temperature,
and the like. It seems quite enough to transmit one fpt
number literal in these cases.

> Never use UDP, and you'll have no problems with that! (:-)) But seriously, 
> do you really want to collapse all OSI levels into one big mess

No.

> and make an 
> application responsible for error correction?

How can hard/software at OSI levels guarantee correct data?
As soon as there is something real in there (i.e., real software,
real hardware, real interference, humans, ...), degradation
is possible.


> [...]
[XSL transformation]

> And why this nightmare cannot be written in Ada?

Because it would explode even more.

Reading hint: if you see

  <apply-templates select="descendant::tbody"/>

forget about the mosaic impression conveyed by <-="::"/> for
a moment and read it as

  Apply templates to the selection of descendant tbodies.

Or read the above aloud. I believe that XSL might look nightmarish
to those who expect few characters on a PL text page, but
if you actually read the text, it is quite natural :-)