Idea: managing source‑files with XML catalogues?

Idea: managing source‑files with XML catalogues?

[Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)]

Hi people,

May looks a bit off‑topic at first sight, but that may be finally no more  
off‑topic than talking about managing sources in a particular source  
chain, like with GNAT project files.

Those of you who know XML catalogues (the ones you use to manage document  
types), may have noticed it's all about retrieving the effective location  
of a file originally designated by a unique identifier. Ex. you may use  
XML catalogues to say “foo.dtd” is to be retrieved at that location, of  
all DTD whose Public Identifier starts with “-//FOO” may be retrieved by  
delegation to “bar.xml” catalogue. Could finally be applied to Ada source  
files too, to say the compiler “Foo.Bar spec” may be retrieved at that  
location, or all reference starting with “Foo” may be delegated to another  
catalogue dedicated to the “Foo” package hierarchy. Note the use of XML  
catalogues, does not requires the retrieved files to be XML, only the  
catalogues has to be.

I was just thinking that may be an option for some kind of tool‑chain  
neutral source files management based on an already widely used standard  
(“already widely used standard”, that's what I like with it, not only  
because that's just a standard, but also because as with many standards,  
that's the result of many people's experiences with a matter).

Those of you who know XML catalogues, how do you feel this may be good at  
managing Ada sources files, or on the opposite, how do you feel this may  
not be good at it? Just out of curiosity, as I feel it may be a good idea,  
while I may be wrong (thus this thread to request for comments).


-- 
“Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semi-colons.” [1]
“Structured Programming supports the law of the excluded muddle.” [1]
[1]: Epigrams on Programming — Alan J. — P. Yale University

Re: Idea: managing source‑files with XML catalogues?

[Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)]

Le Sun, 17 Mar 2013 21:50:48 +0100, Yannick Duchêne (Hibou57)  
<yannick_duchene@yahoo.fr> a écrit:

> Ex. you may use XML catalogues to say “foo.dtd” is to be retrieved at  
> that location, of all DTD whose Public Identifier starts with “-//FOO”  
> may be retrieved by delegation to “bar.xml” catalogue. Could finally be  
> applied to Ada source files too, to say the compiler “Foo.Bar spec” may  
> be retrieved at that location

My apologies for these typos:

   * read “or all DTD” instead of “of all DTD”
   * read “to say Foo.Bar spec” instead of “to say the compiler Foo.Bar  
spec”

-- 
“Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semi-colons.” [1]
“Structured Programming supports the law of the excluded muddle.” [1]
[1]: Epigrams on Programming — Alan J. — P. Yale University