Comments on: An Old Idea http://smackman.com/2006/06/01/an-old-idea/ Putting the smack down, one smack at a time Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:37:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.2 by: steve http://smackman.com/2006/06/01/an-old-idea/#comment-14 Thu, 01 Jun 2006 05:56:27 +0000 http://smackman.com/2006/06/01/an-old-idea/#comment-14 Scott, The point is not that the document can or cannot be parsed with a schema. The point is that the schema allows parsers to be generated automatically rather than hand-code them for each microformat and for each programming language. As for collisions, it's not that you couldn't write a parser that knew that an email address inside a vcard was different than an email address inside an hreview, or that hreviews might contain vcards which, in turn, might contain email addresses that should be associated with the latter. The point is that if there is a clear grammar, then one doesn't have to worry about whether their hand parser will misread a microformat when another, unexpected microformat is nested inside it. Scott,

The point is not that the document can or cannot be parsed with a schema. The point is that the schema allows parsers to be generated automatically rather than hand-code them for each microformat and for each programming language.

As for collisions, it’s not that you couldn’t write a parser that knew that an email address inside a vcard was different than an email address inside an hreview, or that hreviews might contain vcards which, in turn, might contain email addresses that should be associated with the latter. The point is that if there is a clear grammar, then one doesn’t have to worry about whether their hand parser will misread a microformat when another, unexpected microformat is nested inside it.

]]> by: Scott Reynen http://smackman.com/2006/06/01/an-old-idea/#comment-13 Thu, 01 Jun 2006 01:32:24 +0000 http://smackman.com/2006/06/01/an-old-idea/#comment-13 It's not clear to me what problem this would solve. It doesn't appear to solve the problem of collision, as knowing that vcard contains email doesn't tell you that email can also be part of hreview. Can you give a specific example of a document that could be parsed automatically with a schema, and couldn't be parsed automatically without? It’s not clear to me what problem this would solve. It doesn’t appear to solve the problem of collision, as knowing that vcard contains email doesn’t tell you that email can also be part of hreview.

Can you give a specific example of a document that could be parsed automatically with a schema, and couldn’t be parsed automatically without?

]]> by: hans.gerwitz» Blog Archive » http://smackman.com/2006/06/01/an-old-idea/#comment-12 Thu, 01 Jun 2006 00:53:16 +0000 http://smackman.com/2006/06/01/an-old-idea/#comment-12 [...] Microformat schema are sorely needed. Parsing for microformats presently feels…clunky. [...] […] Microformat schema are sorely needed. Parsing for microformats presently feels…clunky. […]

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