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xupl

xupl - ˈsəpəl

Equivalent structure to XML.

Can look like sentences or programming language text.

The Goals

If you can write XML, you already know xupl.

Reduce the verbosity of XML.

Provide a more natural, readable, less verbose means of manually creating structured documents.

Similar to writing programming language text and leverage existing programming IDEs.

Facilitate creating Domain Specific Languages (DSLs).

For example

Here is a xupl document

note:
  to: "Tove"
  from: "Jani"
  heading: "Reminder"
  body: "Don't forget me this weekend!"

For this XML

<note>
  <to>Tove</to>
  <from>Jani</from>
  <heading>Reminder</heading>
  <body>Don't forget me this weekend!</body>
</note>

Not only is the xupl less verbose, it's far easier to read. This becomes much more evident when namespaces are used.

xupl formatted to read like a sentence

note: to: "Tove". from: "Jani". heading: "Reminder". body: "Don't forget me this weekend!".

Alternately, {} can replace :.

note {
  to {"Tove"}
  from {"Jani"}
  heading: "Reminder"
  body: "Don't forget me this weekend!"
}

This enables tools capable of matching braces.

Attributes

Attributes are specified as name "value" or "value" name.

e.g.

a "/nicerobot/xupl/wiki/xupl" href:"xupl"

and

a href "/nicerobot/xupl/wiki/xupl":"xupl"

and

a href "/nicerobot/xupl/wiki/xupl"{"xupl"}

all produce:

<a href="/nicerobot/xupl/wiki/xupl">xupl</a>

Numeric values, including floats, can omit surrounding quotes.

e.g.

size 100 width, 100 height

produces:

<size width="100" height="100" />

Attribute values can remain unquoted for native types:

  • numbers: decimal int, float, base 2,8,10,16,32, and 64 constants
  • sizes: npx nem n%
  • URLs
  • mailto:
  • #tags|rgb
  • @names
  • ~durations
  • ^date
  • !priority

More Examples

HTML Example

html:
  head{title:"My xupl"}
  body:
    a "/nicerobot/xupl/wiki/xupl":"xupl"

This example demonstrates a couple points.

  1. When using tag: syntax, EOF will close all open tags.
  2. Certain tags have default attribute names. e.g. a tag's default attribute name is href.

HTML Output

<html>
  <head><title>My xupl</title></head>
  <body>
    <a href="/nicerobot/xupl/wiki/xupl">xupl</a>
  </body>
</html>

A Metal Control (Flickr Query #cat)

control@metal "flickrquery" name {
  form@metal http://query.yahooapis.com/v1/public/yql action, "get" method {
    input@metal "q" name,
      "select * from flickr.photos.search where text='${queryText}' limit 10" value.
    input@metal "format" name, "json" value.
    input@metal "env" name,
      http://datatables.org/alltables.env value
  }
  control@metal "photo" name, "this.query.results.photo" data {
    a "photo-${parent.index}.${index}" id, http://flickr.com/photo.gne?id=${this.id} href {
      img "20%" width, "20%" height, src
        http://farm${this.farm}.static.flickr.com/${this.server}/${this.id}_${this.secret}.jpg
    }
  }
}

Produces this Metal Control.

xupl for a Sequence Diagram

sequence{
  actors{
    user "User"
    participant view ":View"
    participant controller ":Controller"
    participant model ":Model"
  }
  messages{
    user "request()" view
    view "handleEvent()" controller
    controller "queryInformation()" model
    controller "doValidation()" controller
    view "updateView()" controller
    user "notifyUser()" view
  }
}

The XML

<sequence>
    <actors>
        <user id="User"/>
        <participant view=":View"/>
        <participant controller=":Controller"/>
        <participant entity=":Model"/>
    </actors>
    <messages>
        <user view="request()"/>
        <view controller="handleEvent()"/>
        <controller model="queryInformation()"/>
        <controller controller="doValidation()"/>
        <view controller="updateView()"/>
        <user view="notifyUser()"/>
    </messages>
</sequence>

For this XML

<painting>
  <img src="madonna.jpg" alt="Foligno Madonna, by Raphael"></img>
  <caption>This is Raphael's "Foligno" Madonna, painted in    
    <date>1511</date>-<date>1512</date>.
  </caption>
</painting>

The xupl

painting:
  img "madonna.jpg" src, "Foligno Madonna, by Raphael" alt
  caption:
    """This is Raphael's "Foligno" Madonna, painted in """
    date: "1511". "-"
    date: "1512". "."

For this XML

<?xml version="1.1"?>
<iCalendar xmlns="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xcal">
  <vcalendar>
    <version>2.0</version>
    <prodid>-//hacksw/handcal//NONSGML v1.0//EN</prodid>
    <vevent>
      <dtstart>19970714T170000Z</dtstart>
      <dtend>19970715T035959Z</dtend>
        <summary xml:lang="en_US">Bastille Day Party</summary>
    </vevent>
    </vcalendar>
</iCalendar>

The xupl

?xml "1.1" version.
iCalendar "urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:xcal" xmlns{
  vcalendar{
    version: "2.0"
    prodid: "-//hacksw/handcal//NONSGML v1.0//EN"
    vevent{
      dtstart: "19970714T170000Z"
      dtend: "19970715T035959Z"
      summary "en_US" lang/xml: "Bastille Day Party"
    }
  }
}

Apache Ivy

<ivy-module version="2.0">
  <info organisation="org"
       module="standalone"
       revision="working"
   />
  <dependencies>
    <dependency org="apache" name="commons-lang" rev="2.0" conf="default->*"/>
  </dependencies>
</ivy-module>

As xupl

ivy-module version 2.0 {
  info "org" organisation, "standalone" module, "working" revision
  dependencies {
    dependency "apache" org, "commons-lang" name, rev 2.0, "default->*" conf
  }
}

For this XML

<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0"
  xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
  xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
  <xsl:template match="*">
    [<xsl:value-of select="." />]
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

The xupl

stylesheet/xsl 2.0 version,
  "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xhtml@xmlns,
  "http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xsl@xmlns
{
  template/xsl match "*": "[" value-of/xsl select ".". "]"
}

XML Specifics

CDATA

For this XML

<![CDATA[<greeting>Hello, world!</greeting>]]>

The xupl

'["&lt;greeting>Hello, world!&lt;/greeting>"]

Comments

For this XML

<!-- declarations for <head> & <body> -->

The xupl

Multi-line comment

/* declarations for <head> & <body> */

Single-line comment

// declarations for <head> & <body>

Processing Instructions

For this XML

<?xml version="1.1"?>
<greeting>Hello, world!</greeting>

The xupl

?xml "1.1" version.
greeting: "Hello, world!"

Document Type Declaration (or a catchall)

Anything not directly supported above can be included verbatim with #|"""..."""

For this XML

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

The xupl

!!!plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"!!!

For this XML

<?xml version="1.1" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE greeting [
<!ELEMENT greeting (#PCDATA)>
]>
<greeting>Hello, world!</greeting>

The xupl

?xml with "1.1" version, and "UTF-8" encoding
!!!greeting [
<!ELEMENT greeting (#PCDATA)>
]>!!!
greeting: "Hello, world!"