Re: OT: Re: [Chicken-users] rails-like framework

[John Cowan]

Shawn Rutledge scripsit:

> Another idea I had is if Scheme people could agree on an ideal VM
> implementation (like Java or C# has), and an efficient portable binary
> data format, then binary transport (like RMI in Java) and binary
> serialization to files would be more trustworthy.  

Scheme people can't even agree on the contents of their language beyond
a bare minimum.  Dream on.

> As for Chicken, is there a VM?  I'm guessing not, because for speed
> you just use the compiler, and therefore not a lot of emphasis would
> be placed on making the interpreter the fastest.

No, Chicken does not have a VM.

> IMO somebody needs to write a better editor for S-expressions.  Good
> XML editors are also nontrivial.

"Good" XML editors are impossible, because they have to serve mutually
contradictory goals.  The only hope is to have a variety of adequate
editors with different purposes.

> XML is such a fad, but it is far from optimal for either machines or humans.

That's the whole idea.

> At work I came up with a binary format that is portable, and allows
> you to store the same kind of structures as you would express in XML
> (trees of name-value pairs),  [...]

In that case you might as well use ASN.1, which has the advantage of
being an international standard with multiple data representations
available (including a textual one).  IMHO there is little point in
concocting yet another binary representation of XML.

In any case, it's just *one* use case of XML to provide trees of
name-value pairs.  The world already has too many ways to do
XML without mixed content, but mixed content is the crown jewel
of XML.

-- 
First known example of political correctness:   John Cowan
After Nurhachi had united all the other         http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Jurchen tribes under the leadership of the      address@hidden
Manchus, his successor Abahai (1592-1643)
issued an order that the name Jurchen should       --S. Robert Ramsey,
be banned, and from then on, they were all           The Languages of China
to be called Manchus.