[sdiy] Modular Patch Notation (MPN)

[Andre Majorel]

On 2003-10-04 14:33 +0200, Michael Buchstaller wrote:

> >Would you prefer to read and write this :
> >or this ?
> 
> Whether this is C-Style or HTML-Style does not matter.

s/C/TCL/
s/HTML/XML/

> A trained person (read: programmer) is able to read both
> fluently, and a mere mortal will think both notations suck.

Oversimplification. I'd wager that a mere mortal will have less
trouble with a TCL-like syntax than with XML. And a programmer
will be able to read text with less effort. It's not just
whether or not you can do it, it's also how much it costs to do
it.

If it's important to be able to read modular patches into
spreadsheets, that could also be achieved by writing a program
to convert back and forth between the notation language and XML.

XML has the advantage of being easier to parse by machines. It
also has the disadvantage of being harder to read or write by
humans. For a given application, you need to determine which
problem matters most and make your decision accordingly.

-- 
André Majorel <amajorel at teaser.fr>
http://www.teaser.fr/~amajorel/