> I find the use of a lexer/parser generator as an XML tool builder to be
> quite interesting. It enables you to seamlessly integrate the
> definition of a grammar with a general purpose programming language.
> [Kind of like having DTDs seamlessly integrated with a general purpose
> programming language.] I find this to be very powerful.
What you are doing is essentially building a mini XML parser. But your
solution of using a general lexer/parser generator (such as JavaCC, CUP,
or ANTLR) has an inherent problem.
Namely, you are re-inventing a wheel. And it's a big one. Why build
another XML parser, when you have a lot of free good quality parsers out
there?
Your mini parser isn't even XML parser; it can't handle different
encodings, can't handle entities, Unicode character references,
namespaces ... , the list goes on forever.
You'd better off using a SAX parser as your lexer.
And have a look at RelaxNGCC (http://relaxngcc.sourceforge.net/) I
guess this is close to what you want to do.
regards,
----------------------
Kohsuke Kawaguchi
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