in reply to Re: A Question on a homebrew XML parser
in thread A Question on a homebrew XML parser

Please, please, please, read the spec! And use some existing validation tests, such as those which come with XML::Parser. What you are parsing is not XML, but what you think is XML.

2 exemples:

I haven't really analyzed your code in detail, but other things strike me as odd: why is DD a special case? I could probably go on.

I have a more general comment, please don't take it too personnaly, I really think you might want to think about it: you started the thread by saying that you wanted to keep your skills up. I believe you are not. Instead of hacking a clever, but useless and above all incorrect toy parser, I think your skills would benefit much more of doing a project properly. You can certainly try writing an XML parser, even though I think this might be a little too ambitious, but really, try doing it the right way: get the spec, write test cases (or even better, find existing ones), design your parser, and then write it, test it and start bragging about it ;--) Above all choose a softwrae development method and stick to it.

You seem to have a good command of Perl, now try to improve your general software engineering skills. Believe me this will be way more valuable for you than what you are doing here.

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Re: Re: Re: A Question on a homebrew XML parser
by cyocum (Curate) on Feb 25, 2002 at 22:49 UTC

    I really appreciate your comments and I really appreciate your time and effort to comment on my program. I have been using the spec. Especally since things have come to a point of more difficult problems when dealing with XML. Now looking at the spec, I could have sworn that it said both xml and XML were valid xml prolog markers. I was wrong. I cannot find it. Also, the DD. I could not find in my code at all. Now && is the & sign here in the spec. Also, I found a problem with the ">" if it is used either in the attribute content or the name of the attribute. You were correct. It will cause problems.

    As for software development processes, I have used eXtreme programming in a production environment before (with Java rather than Perl). I liked the theory. I would like to try it again sometime but I will only try it with people that I already trust. I had personal problems with the the people whom I tried this theory. It ended in complete disaster. Now I know that personal problems were not really dealt with in the theory. I have a copy of eXtreme programming explained. Also, coming from a QA background the test before you code idea is a godsend. In any case, I do not take your comments personally. I am glad that you wrote them. I will take them under advisement. Like I said before this is a learning experience and I have learned much about the XML spec and how it is put together. This experience will now be wrapped up into a possibly new project that will be better than this one. Maybe one of these days I will have something to brag about ;). Again, I thank you very much for your comments.

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