28 lines
2.0 KiB
XML
Executable File
28 lines
2.0 KiB
XML
Executable File
<title>FAQ</title>
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<qandaset defaultlabel='qanda'>
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<qandaentry id='&s2.idroot;faq.xslt'>
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<question><simpara>Why didn't you just use XML and let style authors use XSLT?</simpara></question>
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<answer><simpara><ulink url="http://www.livejournal.com/users/evan/601685.html">Because XSLT is ugly and difficult.</ulink></simpara></answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry id='&s2.idroot;faq.newlang'>
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<question><simpara>Why invent a whole new programming language and not just use, say, Perl and Safe.pm?</simpara></question>
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<answer><para>Believe me, a lot of options were considered. There are a number of reasons we "reinvented the wheel":</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><simpara>The other wheels weren't round.</simpara></listitem>
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<listitem><simpara>Safe.pm isn't too safe.</simpara></listitem>
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<listitem><para>By making our own domain language, we make it easy to do the things which are common/specific to this problem. A short list:
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><simpara>The common operation is print. So we made an expression statement starting with a string literal be a print statement on that expression.</simpara></listitem>
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<listitem><simpara>Large blocks of text are printed often, so we wanted the Python-style triple-quoted string literals.</simpara></listitem>
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<listitem><simpara>We wanted <link linkend='&s2.idroot;layers'>layers</link> of functionality/overridability.</simpara></listitem>
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<listitem><simpara>We wanted a graphical wizard to be able to look inside the layers and see what options are available.</simpara></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><simpara>It wasn't that hard.</simpara></listitem>
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<listitem><simpara>The language is very similar to other languages which geeks are already familiar with. The learning curve isn't too steep.</simpara></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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&s2.faq.extra;
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</qandaset>
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