[xquery-talk] [ANN] Candle 0.10 Beta Release - a new scripting language for XML and more

[David Lee]

I'm definitely for more XML scripting languages, its a great thing.   But as
the author of xmlsh I'd like to clarify a misconception 
--- quote
" xmlsh primarily concerns with converting the input and output of the shell
commands into XML"
--- 

This is a misconception.   The primary goal and functionality of xmlsh is to
provide *efficient* native XML processing within a (possibly) familiar
scripting syntax.
There happen to be a few "shell commands" implemented which input or output
XML,  that's a mere sidelight.    External shell commands are not converted
to XML at all.
The main goal is to provide a scripting language where in the past
everything was text (variables, pipes, expressions) but is now fully XML
enabled, but equally with text.
 Variables are stored as XDM values, Expressions support full XQuery syntax,
piping is in-process (threaded) and supports text equally as well as XML.

But to repeat my first statement.    The more good scripting languages for
XML processing the better, IMHO, because it gives more people exposure to
XML.
And being a self-proclaimed "XML Advocate" that's a good thing by definition
:)

Some say too many languages is a bad thing ... but when a technology is
under-utilized  I believe a plethora of languages is good thing.

So good going !!!!


----------------------------------------
David A. Lee
dlee at calldei.com
http://www.xmlsh.org

From: talk-bounces at x-query.com [mailto:talk-bounces at x-query.com] On Behalf
Of henryluo at candlescript.org
Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2011 10:05 PM
To: Geert Josten
Cc: talk at x-query.com; henryluo at candlescript.org
Subject: Re: [xquery-talk] [ANN] Candle 0.10 Beta Release - a new scripting
language for XML and more

Thanks for the comment.
Regarding XProc and xmlsh, I definitely have both in mind when designing
Candle.
Candle will definitely provide pipeline feature like XProc, but it won't be
in 1.0 formal release. 
And I also share the same vision as xmlsh that everything in the end should
be XML or something hierarchical. xmlsh primarily concerns with converting
the input and output of the shell commands into XML, that can be easily done
in Candle using the grammar support in Candle. Candle introduces additional
advanced features to shell scripting, like:
. separation of side effects;
. unifying file system data model (files and directories) with document node
data model, so that you can extend advanced features on XML like schema,
path selection, query and transformation to the file system. That will be a
revolution to the shell scripting. (am I leaking too much of something
exciting for the 1.0 release? :-)
Best Regards
Henry
> Sounds interesting. How does it compare to other solutions that bring
> those
> techniques together, like xmlsh and the XProc standard?
> 
> 
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Geert
> 
> 
> 
> *Van:* talk-bounces at x-query.com [mailto:talk-bounces at x-query.com] *Namens
> *
> henryluo at candlescript.org
> *Verzonden:* dinsdag 22 november 2011 6:37
> *Aan:* talk at x-query.com
> *Onderwerp:* [xquery-talk] [ANN] Candle 0.10 Beta Release - a new
> scripting
> language for XML and more
> 
> 
> 
> Dear members of talk at x-query.com list,
> 
> I'm glad to announce the 0.10 beta release of *Candle*. Candle is an
> open-source (MPL) scripting language that unifies the core features of
> many
> XML-related technologies (including XSLT, XQuery, XQuery Update, RELAX NG,
> BNF, XHTML, SVG and more). It can be used to develop command-line, desktop
> and Internet applications.
> 
> Some of the advantages of Candle comparing to XSLT and XQuery are:
> 
> - *Candle is an unified language* instead of two highly-overlapping
> languages. Candle uses scripting syntax instead of the highly verbose
> markup syntax of XSLT.
> - *Candle's
>
markup<http://www.candlescript.org/doc/candle-markup-reference.htm>language
> is strongly-typed
> * even without schema, whereas XML is only weakly-typed without schema.
> - *Candle comes up with a pattern
> language<http://www.candlescript.org/doc/candle-pattern-reference.htm>
> * which cleanly unifies several pattern-related DSLs (including RegEx,
> BNF, RELAX NG, XQuery Sequence Type). It can easily match on sequence
> of
> items, nodes and characters.
> - *Candle unifies functional and procedural programming*. Through a
> mechanism called
>
separation-of-side-effects<http://www.candlescript.org/doc/candle-query-refe
rence.htm#sose>,
> Candle unifies two worlds in a more orderly manner then any existing
> multi-paradigm programming languages.
> - *Candle is a general-purpose scripting language* like Python, whereas
> XSLT and XQuery are more like DSLs. Candle alone is sufficient to
> develop
> complex command-line, desktop and Internet applications, whereas XSLT
> and
> XQuery still need to integrate with other languages to develop a
> serious
> application.
> 
> And this new release introduces a new hierarchical namespace
>
syntax<http://www.candlescript.org/doc/candle-markup-reference.htm#namespace
>and
> adds support for a new object
>
notation<http://www.candlescript.org/doc/candle-markup-reference.htm#object-
notation>.
> You can find out more details from the updated reference documents, as
> well
> as my 3 new blogs:
> 
> - Who Needs
> XML<http://candleapp.blogspot.com/2011/11/who-needs-xml.html>:
> I talked about the problems of XML as a general data-exchange format,
> especially when used for structured data.
> - A Markup Notation Better Then
>
Ever<http://candleapp.blogspot.com/2011/11/markup-notation-better-then-ever.
html>:
> I showed how Candle unifies XML markup data model with OOP object data
> model, and its advantages comparing to formats like XML, JSON, JavaFX
> literal object and YAML.
> - The Examples Speak For
>
Themselve<http://candleapp.blogspot.com/2011/11/examples-speak-for-themselve
s.html>:
> I showed how Candle Markup can effectively express different kinds of
> structured data, like iCanlendar Record, SVG, MathML, DOT graph
> language,
> POV-Ray SDL, and Lua configuration.
> 
> For more information, you can visit the
> website<http://www.candlescript.org/>(
> http://www.candlescript.org/) or the SourceForge
> project<http://sourceforge.net/projects/candleapp/>
> .
> 
> Your feedback on Candle is highly appreciated.
> 
> Henry
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> Candle App Platform - An *unified platform* for desktop and Internet apps.
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