Tree components programming: An application to XML

Abstract

We present a new programming approach based on a contextual component specification. The language we propose integrates XML and functional aspects in a coherent and homogeneous framework. This enables us to fully have static typing and to specify formal properties with respect to interactions. Our language FICX, Functional Interactive and Compositional XML, defines a new kind of data structure called Xobjects and relies on a statically typed functional language (currently OCaml). An Xobject is an abstract structure made in two parts: the Xdata part is an XML structure extended by means of triggers dedicated to interactions, the reaction part gives the code associated to triggers that is evaluated on demand. The modularity is ensured by a parameterization of Xobjects: compound Xobjects form a tree structure, rendering a complex XML tree together with appropriate reactions for triggers. A program is a set of structures, each structure being a tree of Xobjects. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.