Steve O'Hara-Smith wrote:
> > If you're wondering where I'm heading with this, think of nested data
-
> > like XML (only far more compact).
>
> If that's the goal look into ASN1.
>
Isn't ANS1 mostly about encoding data *type* - along with the data?
That's a separate issue. I'm looking to handle nested delimited strings
of any, or no specified, type. The data type (required for conversion
to/from ASN1, say) of each delimited string, or group of strings, along
with any other metadata such as markup, can be described or defined in
an associated nested delimited string, or two, or three, or whatever.
Nested data is all around. Indented program code, newsgroups and the
threads within them, folders/directories, etc. etc.. It would be nice
to have a really simple way to represent and manipulate nested
structures up to 128 levels deep - much simpler than ASN1 and much more
compact than XML, and yet easily transformable into either, or any
other, format.
If you take any nested data in any format - XML is an obvious example -
it should be possible to represent it as a simple delimited string as I
described in my OP. It would be good, I reckon, if I (with a little
help) can come up with simple cross-platform tools to perform the
functions also described in my OP.
Cheers
Mike.
|
