XML DOM Binding for Ada 95 - matter of style

["DENNY VRANDECIC" <nodix@tiscali.de>]

Hello group,

I am writing an XML DOM Binding for Ada 95 (as part of my master thesis) -
not really the whole parser, just a binding to a parser that is more
complete (i.e. implements more modules of the DOM Spec) than the otherwise
great XmlAda by ACT. The binding will be given to the community for free
under a BSD-like license.

I'd love to write the binding in such a way, that later the user may easily
switch to a native DOM Implementation (like a further developed XmlAda),
which I'm sure will finally come. But for that I have to make one hard
decision: which standard to follow?

On the one hand, the W3C published IDLs in their standards, and I may choose
just to stick close to these IDL-Specs. The result doesn't have an Ada-like
feeling - the procedures names are written in one word, the exception
handling is cumbersome, and more. But I follow the W3C standard closely, and
that's a good thing, isn't it? And most of the interface could be created
automatically. There would be less discussions on the details of this way,
as their is a standard IDL describing the interface and a standard mapping
of IDL to Ada 95. Everything is standard, everything is fine.

On the other hand, I could adhere to the Ada style guide, and make the
binding feel very Adaesque. Ada users would learn it easier, it would better
fit in the program, the stylecheckers would appreciate it and much more. But
with creating this interface I would probably have to make much more
decisions, which could be questioned, and thus this way would harder lead to
an accepted standard interface, thus making switching the implementation
later harder.

It's a Catch-22, so I'd love to draw on your experience. I will deliver a
talk on Friday at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, about this, and
discuss it with the people there to form a stronger opinion about it, and I
would love to hear your opinion on it beforehand and afterwards. I like to
make this decision with you, as eventually this binding is done for the
community.

Sorry for my bad english, I'm no native speaker. If you have further
questions or comment, that or not of interest to many, you may also send
them via eMail (denny_at_nodix.de).

Thanks for your time,
Denny Vrandecic
Student of computer science, University Stuttgart