Cart
[Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries]
Hi Folks,
Occasionally I find that I need to create a special-purpose programming language, to be used to describe how to process XML documents.
In creating the language I would mimic other programming languages such as Java, e.g.,
<if>
<condition>...</condition>
<then>
<action>...</action>
and
<while>
<condition>...</condition>
<do>
<action>...</action>
Then I would write an interpreter (using XSLT) to interpret "programs" written in my new programming language.
However, I recently realized that there is another approach. This illustrates the approach:
<Machine>
<TransitionRules>
<Transition currentState="Number" read="0" write="0"
nextState=Number" />
<Transition currentState="Number" read="1" write="1"
nextState=Number" />
<Transition currentState="Number" read=" " write="0"
nextState=Halt" />
</TransitionRules>
</Machine>
Instructions and algorithms are expressed using state transition rules.
The neat thing about this approach is:
(1) It is very regular. I don't need to invent a bunch of new elements, such as <if> and <while>.
(2) It is very powerful - it can express any algorithm [1].
(3) No need to constantly extend the language to support new features.
I was inspired to this approach after reading this fantastic article [2], which represents Turing Machines in XML.
Have you created your own special purpose programming language, formatted as XML? If so, what approach did you take to create your language?
/Roger
[1] You may recognize that this is essentially a Turing machine. Turing machines are known to be capable of expressing any algorithm.
[2] See section 2 of:
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download;jsessionid=F9BABBA74FAEC3276C5DEBC8CC756775?doi=10.1.1.100.3032&rep=rep1&type=pdf
[Date Prev] | [Thread Prev] | [Thread Next] | [Date Next] -- [Date Index] | [Thread Index] |
