tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post2919374426787545113..comments2024-03-13T12:21:27.016-05:00Comments on The Programmer's Paradox: bXMLPaul W. Homerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02349253120538728302noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-60062373555025000672009-10-01T05:37:56.527-05:002009-10-01T05:37:56.527-05:00Thanks for your answer ;)
Now I've read you p...Thanks for your answer ;)<br /><br />Now I've read you post and the other comments... Having worked on "sensitive" systems, I like being able to debug quickly some data, even with a console editor such as vi(m). I haven't had the need for a binary-indexed XML format, but I guess some people might like/require the easy conversion between usual XML and some more "dense" yet "readable" format.<br /><br />I like XML, but as many technologies it has been so much abused that it's hard not to be weary when someone wants to tinker with it... (I confess having overused it myself sometimes)<br /><br />Back to the meta-blogging, of course you write partly to clear up your mind (which requires long self-to-self thinking that can sometimes only been solved by writing it down), partly to share your ideas with others and interact with them. Well, many who write books or press articles, or speak on the radio/tv are in the same state of mind. The publication and the author/reader interaction are made easier with blogs, but it is not that different.<br /><br />The sound of silence can be deafening sometimes...<br /><br />(I guess I'll never manage to write a short comment... I'm not sure it's a problem anyway)Alnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-84577618676597573092009-09-30T13:16:16.787-05:002009-09-30T13:16:16.787-05:00Hi Al,
Thanks for the comments. No, I don't m...Hi Al,<br /><br />Thanks for the comments. No, I don't mind at all, in fact I really do appreciate it :-)<br /><br />I think the hardest part of blogging comes from my trying to find ways to express some of my internal understandings. Often I know what I want to say, but I have no real idea how to say it. <br /><br />In that sense, I'm occasionally concerned that I sound way more eccentric than I really am. That the silence is somehow a confirmation that what I am saying is a little 'off'. <br /><br />Mostly I try not to let that affect me. But there is always that part of me that really wants to make a difference, and to accomplish that, I need to influence someone.<br /><br />Your point about the size of the posts (and their depth) making it harder for people to comment is 'spot on'. Funny enough, since I'm a frequent commenter on other blogs, I should have seen that clearer. I think I'll experiment around with trying to make it easier for people to add in their input (a few open questions perhaps?). <br /><br /><br />Paul.Paul W. Homerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02349253120538728302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-40032446203998311682009-09-30T10:56:35.541-05:002009-09-30T10:56:35.541-05:00Hi,
A quick comment for I do not have yet the tim...Hi,<br /><br />A quick comment for I do not have yet the time to read you post and the other comments, I'll come back when I'll have more time.<br /><br />I have been an irregular reader of your blog ; I do not mind having to read long articles, as yours are most often very insightful (which is why I still come back from time to time). Of course it requires time to read and to understand. But, heck, should all writings fall to the length of a twit ?<br /><br />Trying to grasp a subject that is not solved by some easy formal algorithm (which is, in fact, almost everything in our human lives) can be long, error-prone, and might require several iterations to have some understanding of it. Writing it down can take a few lines, or a few 1000 pages books, depending of the complexity of the problem and the time you take to think of it. Your posts are longer than we can see on other blogs, indeed, but I do not see this as a problem.<br /><br />The corollary to the big time you need to think of it, and write your blog posts, is that your readers need time to understand what you mean. And, if they want to answer and leave a comment, they can have the feeling that such long posts deserve long, well-thought, exhaustive answers. And that requires time and energy.<br /><br />All this to say that I do not think that the number of comments are a correct measure of your readers' interest in your work. Well, the number of comments to *this* post might give a more correcte measure than usual, but even then it's only the readers that care enough about you to say "keep up with the good work".<br /><br />You know that the net sets some distance between the writer and the reader, that communication over the net is much more impersonal than men were used to. Some might be interested in your blog and not think that the guy writing those posts is a human that needs some feedback, answers, questions, people saying "hi" - without wich you might feel that you are speaking all alone in some big giant electronic version of the Sahara...<br /><br />Well, my comment is a bit longer than i wanted it to be. Hope you don't mind ;)Alnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-13685763339749059412009-09-29T09:41:22.176-05:002009-09-29T09:41:22.176-05:00Hi Piers,
Thanks for the comments. I tend to thin...Hi Piers,<br /><br />Thanks for the comments. I tend to think that elegance is driven both by the beauty of the underlying design, but also by how easily it can be used. It's too easy to create intricate, yet frail technology. But ultimately we build tools for people, and it's in that capacity that we have to measure the success (or failure) of our efforts.<br /><br />Paul.Paul W. Homerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02349253120538728302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-86708577837705018612009-09-28T11:52:00.437-05:002009-09-28T11:52:00.437-05:00>>> Small ideas that can be leveraged for...>>> Small ideas that can be leveraged for big things are the essence of elegance.<br /><br />Take that to the bank. You've summed up so much that is necessary for both elegance and transparency right there. Perhaps XML doesn't shine in situations where JSON or a binary format might be more appropriate, but it definitely does when, for instance, financial declarations are made human- *and* machine-readable with XBRL.<br /><br />As to your article, you are absolutely right that the continued viability of PDF is something to be emulated. I do think that the current breed of document-centric databases (Mark Logic, eXist etc), are well-positioned to provide solid indexing for XML documents, in essence giving them somewhere to live, though what you are suggesting accomplishes the same in a more portable fashion. Elegant.<br /><br />Cheers,<br />PiersP. M. Hollotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01542635131280325135noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-9158268780968641612009-09-21T10:45:33.138-05:002009-09-21T10:45:33.138-05:00Hi Astrobe,
Thanks for your comments.
We program...Hi Astrobe,<br /><br />Thanks for your comments.<br /><br />We programmers have a real tendency to only see technology from our own perspective. We assume that others work with it the same way, and we often get too lost in admiring the underlying details to stand back and look at the larger picture.<br /><br />In that sense, text seems horribly large, inefficient and unnecessary. But from an operational side, binary is the really painful format. I don't know how many times I've been saved by the readability of PDFs in diagnosing systems-level problems. Or been able to work through big problems in systems with text based databases (there are a few out there) and config files.<br /><br />There is a huge amount of convenience in being able to rely strongly on general tools, particularly when time or security become impediments to installing more specialized ones for each specialized format. We can't underestimate the importance of our technologies being easier to work with in real operational circumstances, after all, we build these things to be used. Ease of use is crucial. Not having to install (or update) software during a panic, is a great thing.<br /><br />Text is, and always will be nicer than binary for the users. A great example of this was the change in Windows from ini files to the registry. While regedit is usually available, the obfuscation of hiding massive amounts of stuff in an opaque specialized database made dealing with Windows a much harder task. Plain text was way better. If it wasn't as efficient or as technologically cool, it certainly was so much less of a pain in the ass and that made a huge different to the people that use the technology.<br /><br />As for XML, it is true that it hasn't always been my favorite technology, and I find large XML files a pain to deal with, even if they are displayed fancy colored and nicely indexed windows (pretty editors can't fix messy data). Still, at its heart it consists of a fairly small set of rather powerful ideas. Ideas that allow it to get leveraged for all sorts of usages. That's as much of a definition of "simple and powerful" as you can get. Contrast that with something massive and specific like JCL, AS400s or some of the larger (and uglier) GUI interface libraries. Big, ugly and inconsistent.<br /><br />Small ideas that can be leveraged for big things are the essence of elegance. Even if there are attributes that we don't like (like being text-based), we can still appreciate those attributes that are good (like expressibility or the fact that the data is explicitly named (and implicitly (strongly) typed) and perhaps build on them (or mix them with other attributes from technologies that we find useful like easy-readability).<br /><br /><br />Paul.Paul W. Homerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02349253120538728302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-61188136443153523092009-09-20T13:08:37.184-05:002009-09-20T13:08:37.184-05:00This bXML thing is quite a surprise to me, coming ...This bXML thing is quite a surprise to me, coming from you.<br /><br />To me, the fact that people feel the need to go back to some form of binary format is yet another proof that XML is wrong.<br /><br />Not only XML, but the whole idea of text-based communications between programs, which is a central idea of Unix. One may find XML's great father in the runoff (that later evolved in nroff/troff).<br />I would say that XML is the final degeneration of that idea. Even plain-text communication proponents are starting to move to less convoluted formats such as JSON.<br /><br />Plain text is incredibly expensive both to parse and to transmit and store. The sole argument in its favour is that it is supposed to be human-readable.<br /><br />But who would read a multi-kilobyte, deeply nested XML document? You quickly need an XML editor.<br /><br />I find the argument of readability just childish and lazy. It costs very few to write a useful program that would display a binary format into something readable and usable for humans, because the code for that is already or will be part of your program anyway. Writing such a tool helps both in designing and testing the main program, and it will fit your needs better than any plugin for your favourite editor.<br /><br />But the real point where we disagree is when you say that XML is "simple" and "powerful". <br />It is clearly not simple. For instance, no one knows how to use attributes. For instance, the <tag> </tag> syntax is awfully redundant. For instance, a security hole was discovered recently in several XML parser libraries. One should oblige those who say that it is simple to write a parser for it pure C; I bet they will change their mind.<br />As for "powerful"... that word is too often used by people when they don't know what to do with something or what it can actually do for them. So when I hear that word or when I am about to use it, the signal goes red.Astrobehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15960746039722376758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-36362887793978947682009-09-18T16:08:53.908-05:002009-09-18T16:08:53.908-05:00Hi Techzen,
Thanks for the comment!
I'm gla...Hi Techzen,<br /><br />Thanks for the comment! <br /><br />I'm glad to see that there is a whole group of people out there reading the blog that I haven't heard from before. I get the stats for subscribers, but it's hard to know why they are subscribing or if they are really reading things. <br /><br />Paul.Paul W. Homerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02349253120538728302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-52751843541687819022009-09-18T11:55:46.690-05:002009-09-18T11:55:46.690-05:00Read a few posts on your blog and really enjoyed r...Read a few posts on your blog and really enjoyed reading them ! :)techzenhttp://techzen.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-44830429640524663312009-09-18T10:15:24.887-05:002009-09-18T10:15:24.887-05:00Hi Seiti,
Thanks for the comments.
I usually me...Hi Seiti,<br /><br />Thanks for the comments. <br /><br />I usually mean to write something shorter, mostly because the editing can take so long (I am a sloppy editor) and once I've decided on a topic I'm usually pretty keen to get it out there as fast as possible. <br /><br />But once I start writing, I just keep thinking of more things that are related ....<br /><br /><br />Paul.Paul W. Homerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02349253120538728302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-36162685549745547772009-09-17T19:53:23.044-05:002009-09-17T19:53:23.044-05:00I do read it too, despite english not being my fir...I do read it too, despite english not being my first language. <br /><br />And yes, the posts ARE long. Very long. But there´s something in them that keeps me reading every single one. =)Seitihttp://seiti.eti.brnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-73881473708291929152009-09-16T12:58:18.664-05:002009-09-16T12:58:18.664-05:00Hi Ed,
Thanks for the comments, it's actually...Hi Ed,<br /><br />Thanks for the comments, it's actually worth a great deal. <br /><br />I guess sometimes when posting, I'm greeted by that deafening wall of silence and I start to wonder whether it's all really worth it. I don't blog because I'm narcissistic (I think), nor for the money. I do it because mostly I am hoping to make some type of difference, perhaps to push things back into some better shape. <br /><br />But in blogging, a lack of mass popularity often leaves open the question of whether or not you are wrong, crazy, can't write well enough or people are just disinterested. I can't help wondering sometimes if or why people really read my ramblings. So it is hugely comforting when people do respond. Especially positively, it makes a big difference. <br /><br />I'll stick to the things I find interesting (but try harder to explain why they are relevant). I also think I'll experiment with spreading topics across a several posts. Perhaps use a few more bullet points as well. I'd like to make the things I'm saying more accessible, so hopefully they reach a wider audience, but I promise not to water them down too much.<br /><br />Thanks again for commenting :-)<br /><br />Paul.Paul W. Homerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02349253120538728302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-48774494666804844322009-09-16T10:21:15.372-05:002009-09-16T10:21:15.372-05:00Hej, Paul,
For what it's worth, I also enjoy ...Hej, Paul,<br /><br />For what it's worth, I also enjoy your posts and also find them too long; but I don't mean that at all negatively, I'm just one of those Information-Agers with a short attention ... watchumacallit.<br /><br />I think your posts are perfect for the chap/ette with time on his/her hands. And you also write very skimmably, so perhaps you work both audiences.<br /><br />This, however, concerned me: "I'm split between not caring and just doing my own thing, or trying harder to pick more accessible topics to gain acceptance."<br /><br />I think as soon as you start picking topics because of their accessibility, you'll have taken your first step towards quitting (despite your comment to Neil).<br /><br />There are loads and loads of bloggers out there who write what they think others want to read.<br /><br />What makes you unique is that you're the only blogger in the world - in the universe - with Paul W. Homer's point-of-view: it's the only thing that makes you more, "Sellable," than any other blogger out there.<br /><br />That you would consider diluting this rare mixture is perplexing.<br /><br />Keep up the good work,<br /><br />Ed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-40274732676815322302009-09-14T22:28:17.402-05:002009-09-14T22:28:17.402-05:00Hi Neil,
Thanks for the encouragement, I apprecia...Hi Neil,<br /><br />Thanks for the encouragement, I appreciate it far more than I'm willing to admit in public :-)<br /><br />I wasn't really thinking of quitting, but just picking topics that aren't nearly as esoteric. Most of what I write has a practical side even if I do tend to dip towards the theoretical (dark) side from time to time. Still I could be more practical.<br /><br />Recently though, I've become a interested in some aspects of the infamous P=NP problem. Theory does set the limits of practice, which indirectly effects what we build. Improvements in pure Computer Science drive our ability to write bigger, better more suitable programs. Still, sometimes it's hard to see the applicability in many routine programming tasks.<br /><br />If I get time to write them, my next set of posts may seem a long way off from day-to-day programming issues, but like the normalization posts I'd really like to get the ideas out there, so that at some point they find their way into usefulness. <br /><br />If you ever have any questions or perhaps some insights, don't be afraid to comment. Sometimes I skip over bits or use weird definitions (sometimes I don't even know what I mean, 62% of the time I even make up fake statistics). I'm always happy to hear from people, and if nothing else questions help me to understand where the weaknesses lie in my own understanding, explanations and writing.<br /><br /><br />Paul.Paul W. Homerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02349253120538728302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-36669772182644929492009-09-14T15:36:01.458-05:002009-09-14T15:36:01.458-05:00Please don't stop what you are doing!
I don&#...Please don't stop what you are doing!<br /><br />I don't understand half the stuff that you are talking about—but at least you aren't talking down to me. And the half that I understand makes me want to understand the half that I don't.<br /><br />Gallier2 is [half right] it's a lot to take at a single bite—but sometimes that just has to be.<br /><br />I'm an [old] neophyte at this computing game, and one of the hardest things [for me] is that people want to give me THE truth on a plate—ADTs are just that, abstract, nothing I have to worry about…<br /><br />You don't do that—you highlight the uncertainty of computing, and the fallacy of our thinking that we can ever get it right. You know your Godel.<br /><br />I decided to do a maths and computing degree because of a boy named Paul, who said, "it'll help you understand some of the more esoteric blogs", and because of you. [who hosts one].<br /><br />Please keep it up, perhaps some time I'll have something interesting to say…neilhttp://neilanderson.freehostia.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-75170555455370590392009-09-14T14:52:02.195-05:002009-09-14T14:52:02.195-05:00I meant to add this point to the original post, bu...I meant to add this point to the original post, but I keep forgetting:<br /><br />If I were using this format as the basis of some type of database table, it would require a paging mechanism to be overlaid onto the data (otherwise inserts would be horrifically expensive as the data grows). <br /><br />Something simple like breaking the file up into blocks for sub-trees and using block-references in the index instead of character positions. There are lots of good operating system examples for handling this type of problem (or perhaps try merging this with a gap buffer like an editor). <br /><br />Paul.Paul W. Homerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02349253120538728302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-37130961567480941122009-09-14T14:48:56.230-05:002009-09-14T14:48:56.230-05:00Hi gallier2,
Thanks for the comments. Yes, length...Hi gallier2,<br /><br />Thanks for the comments. Yes, length has been one of those common complaints that I really really should address. Not only does it turn people off, but it also makes it much harder for me to write and edit.<br /><br />Lately I've been trying to shorten the posts (I've been very pressed for time this summer), but I can't seem to figure out how to work this into my writing style (if you can call it that) without just overly trivializing things or making each post just a series of links to other posts. <br /><br />I promise to try harder :-)<br /><br /><br />Paul.Paul W. Homerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02349253120538728302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-70901415507090559032009-09-14T14:32:52.154-05:002009-09-14T14:32:52.154-05:00Just a little remark concerning your introductory ...Just a little remark concerning your introductory paragraph. It's not that your articles are not interesting, they are and I enjoy them and you're on my rss reader so I don't miss an update. The problem I have with you posts, is that they are awfully long. It takes really hard dedication to read a post through. It would be better IMHO to split a theme on several posts, so that a little more interaction can be built with readers via comments. With your extremly thorough and long articles, there is not much that can be added.<br />As for the real subject of todays installment, no comment as I haven't read it yet.gallier2https://www.blogger.com/profile/04285836062429366578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-14581660938556203732009-09-14T09:31:40.134-05:002009-09-14T09:31:40.134-05:00Hi Dontcare,
Thanks for the comment (nice user n...Hi Dontcare, <br /><br />Thanks for the comment (nice user name). VTD-XML looks interesting, although it's a little more complex (and a little less readable) than I was trying for. <br /><br />There are a huge number of variations on XML that would be very useful if they get out there in practice. What makes a format like PDF interesting, is how quickly it was able to get out into the wild when it was first introduced. So many technologies never get very far from the drawing board. <br /><br />Paul.Paul W. Homerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02349253120538728302noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104420435021904082.post-47451713375644742182009-09-14T03:19:44.925-05:002009-09-14T03:19:44.925-05:00vtd-xml may be worth a look if you want faster per...vtd-xml may be worth a look if you want faster perfomrance, built-in indexing, and fast update/delete/modification<br /><br />http://vtd-xml.sf.netanon_anonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14424619310452413715noreply@blogger.com