Reducing application code complexity with vocabulary-specific XML language bindings

  • Authors:
  • Jules White;Boris Kolpackov;Balachandran Natarajan;Douglas C. Schmidt

  • Affiliations:
  • Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN;Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN;Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN;Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 43rd annual Southeast regional conference - Volume 2
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) has become a ubiquitous data exchange and storage format. A variety of tools are available for incorporating XML-based data into applications. The most common XML tools (such as parsers for SAX and DOM) provide low-level vocabulary-independent interfaces, which can make it hard to develop and debug robust applications. This paper examines tools for generating vocabulary-specific XML-to-C++ language mappings and shows how they can reduce key sources of complexity associated with developing object-oriented XML-based applications. The paper also presents criteria for evaluating tools that generate vocabulary-specific language mappings and applies these criteria to compare five tools for this purpose: XML Spy, Xbinder, Object Link, Liquid XML Data Binding Wizard, and XML Schema Compiler (XSC). Our results show that XSC is the only tool that provides a complete vocabulary-specific mapping, alignment with the C++ Standard Library, and code portability, while also providing the most manageable generated code base.