• To: xml-dev mailing list <xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: genx - abstract output
• From: Tim Bray <tbray@t...>
• Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 19:39:47 -0800

Right now genx does output to a FILE *.  Several have suggested that it 
should do output via an abstracted callback.  This sounds kind of 
seductive, and is indeed much more general, and would be no biggie to 
implement, but the more I think about it the less I like it.  So at the 
moment I'm leaning to sticking with FILE * for the following reasons:

1. The sweet spot for XML is interchange, and FILE * is a nice general 
basis for almost all kinds of interchange.
2. If you're going to build an XML instance in memory, wouldn't it be 
more natural to pull together a DOM or your own private data structure 
and then serialize it in one fell swoop?
3. This lowers the barrier-to-entry to implementers, who are going to 
see genxStartDocument(genxWriter w, FILE * file) and say "oh yeah I 
know what to do" as opposed to having to figure out another flavor of 
I/O abstraction and write a stub of some kind.

So this would be a good time to say "I'd use genx for XXX, but if it 
sticks with FILE * I'm not going to be able to use it because of YYY".

  -Tim

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: genx - abstract output
    • From: "Karl Waclawek" <karl@w...>
  • Re: genx - abstract output
    • From: Bart Schuller <schuller+xml-dev@l...>
  • genx: FILE *
    • From: David Tolpin <dvd@d...>
  • Re: genx - abstract output
    • From: John Cowan <cowan@m...>

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