Hey Richard!

[snip]
> So maybe, just MAYBE, the outfits that bring us browsers will finally see
> fit to finish implementing CSS2.  On the other hand, maybe they'll decide
> to toss CSS2 on the junk heap without ever giving it a fair go, and go
> straight to XSL.  On the gripping hand, if they had a hard time with CSS2,
> when can we expect to get working XSL processors in browsers (other than
> James Clark's, which I hear he has stopped maintaining...)

Maybe...just *maybe*...a Smalltalk based browser will be first to
completely support XSL! Cincom is going to open source its (partial and 
buggy, i.e., beta) XSL processor which is based on its (somewhat less
parital and buggy) open sourced XML validating parser which now has a
partial port to Squeak! Last week at Camp Smalltalk I managed to get it up
and running and parsing (without validation) well formed documents. I got
a little sidetracked trying to get Roger Whitney's *excellent* set of
tests going (he uses the Oasis bundle of tests...very very nice).

The parser has already been ported to VisualWorks 3.x (from 5i) and
VisualAge. It's being use in the Camp Smalltalk SOAP project (ick; SOAP is
*nasty* and I am *sooooo* glad I wasn't working on it).

We've got a couple of web browsers in Squeak, and then there's SmallWalker
for VisualWorks. Smalltalk/X has some HTML renderers. Seems like there's a
real possibility here.

> And when you add in XBase, Namespaces, XPath, XLink, XInclude, XSchema,
> XSL, ... you have to say "XML?  what flavour?"

Yes. I was starting to beat my head against the floor. I'm still waiting
for the simple little document processor that helps me write papers that I
then render to all sorts of interesting output formats....Greenblatt's law
about any program of sufficent complexity ending up reimplementing poorly
half of Common Lisp seems to be holding for XML :)

I've also noticed the SWI-Prolog parser, which is rather nippy. I wonder
if there's anything useful (for a Smalltalk/Squeak context) there for
raiding.

----
So, we have 4-5 XML parsers for Squeak. It would be nice to get some
movement on Unicode (I'm aware of the Multi-lingual Squeak work, and
intend to take another peek at it now that I've a slightly better grasp of
the situation).

I'll post the port of the Cincom parser in a couple of days (after I pull
the stuff together; just got home this morning).

I was going to write some stuff about it and about the experience of Camp
Smalltalk from a Squeaker's point of view, but I'm too tired :)

Cheers,
Bijan Parsia.