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Hi Folks,
As you read these words, inside your brain you are parsing them, you are creating a parse tree.
This quote says it better:
Sentences, linear sequences of symbols,
are really just serializations of parse trees
we humans grok natively in hardware. To
get an idea across to someone, we have
to conjure up the same parse tree in their
heads using a word stream. [The Definitive
ANTLR 4 Reference, p. 11]
Now think about XML. An XML document is a parse tree. Let's see why.
In the old days we would take this data:
Parsing Techniques, Dick Grune/Ceriel J. H. Jacobs, 2007
create a grammar:
Book --> Title Authors Date
Title --> string
Authors --> Author+
Author --> string
Date --> year
and parse the data using the grammar, to produce a parse tree.
The result is each item of data is labeled:
Title: Parsing Techniques
Author: Dick Grune
Author: Ceriel J. H. Jacobs
Date: 2007
and the labeled items are structured into a tree.
With XML we have dispensed with all of that. Or, rather, we have rolled all that into the creation of data. Allow me to explain. With XML, data is labelled:
<Title>Parsing Techniques</Title>
<Author>Dick Grune</Author>
<Author>Ceriel J. H. Jacobs </Author>
<Date>2007</Date>
and is structured into a tree:
<Book>
<Title>Parsing Techniques</Title>
<Authors>
<Author>Dick Grune</Author>
<Author>Ceriel J. H. Jacobs </Author>
<Date>2007</Date>
</Authors>
</Book>
So the data has been labeled and the structure of the data has been made explicit. XML is a parse tree!
Let's recap:
- The brain processes information as a parse tree
- XML represents information as a parse tree
Therefore, XML is the perfect form for human comprehension!
/Roger
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