I ran into a couple of issues with the XML format as a way of
transmitting editing operations.
First, there are a couple of bits of editing operation data which
don't seem to have any corresponding encoding in XML: ancestor data
and directory entry property changes.
Second, in addition to putting a bunch of restrictions on the flow of
editing operations, the hierarchical structure is kind of a pain to
code to. You have to deal with things like, "okay, this is an
operation on a new directory entry. What was I just doing? If I had
just begun a directory, I have to start a <tree-delta> element. If I
was just working on a file and I haven't seen a text-delta for it yet,
I have to output a text-delta-ref element, save the reference in the
file baton, and end that <file> element." This is doable, but it
would be easier, as well as less restrictive editing producers, if we
scrapped the hierarchical XML format in favor of something like what I
proposed yesterday.
So, I think I'm going to set aside the work I've done so far, flesh
out yesterday's XML format proposal, and start working on that
(parsing as well as outputting). If people think we should stick with
a hierarchical format (with all the corresponding restrictions on
delta producers), they should speak up.
Received on Sat Oct 21 14:36:10 2006