[JDEV] Genicon Hybrid Solution - should solve the differences

Wed Apr 24 16:47:14 CDT 2002

Hate to contribute to this more, but I just got an idea....

I might have gotten this from reading the thread here, so forgive me if 
I'm just repeating a position that's already been proposed.

I just thought of a hybrid of the two positions. I and others want the 
light and simple method of regexp-like filtering of messages. Others 
want the powerful and flexible XML solution. We can have both in the 
same spec. Here's how:

The <body> of a message includes plaintext keywords marked up in my 
double-colon convention, as I've laid out before (ex: ::beer:: creates a 
beer mug, ::moon:: creates a silvery moon). But, outside the <body> tag 
is an X-tag (jabber's x element), including a "jabber:x:genicon" 
namespace. This x:genicon area includes other tags defining images for 
the double-colon keywords in the body.

An example:

<message to="mike at theoretic.com" from="theo at theoretic.com">
   <body>Hi, Mike! I ::email:: the specs to you. Also keep my informed 
on the PingID codebase by ::email:: not ::jabber::. Oh, yeah, great pics 
of you at your ::cake:: party.  :-)</body>
   <x xmlns="jabber:x:genicons">
     <genicon keyword="jabber" lang="en" icon="lightbulb.png">
     <genicon keyword="email" lang="en" icon="envelope.png">
     <genicon keyword="cake" lang="en" icon="birthday-cake.png">
   </x>
</message>

Note there is only one X-tag entry for all instances of the keyword in 
the body. The icon="" in the X-tag could be anything (URN, relative 
filename, www resource, etc...), I just used a relative PNG for the 
example. Also, if there is not an X-tag entry for a keyword in the body, 
it is assumed that the recipient client knows of it already (either 
cached or hard-coded from a standard spec). If there is no image for the 
keyword, then it is displayed as-is, and is still meaningful.

This has the reliability of a standard plaintext keyword convention, and 
keeps things separate, but allows for the flexability and extensability 
of the XML convention.

Thoughts?

-- 
     /\  Adam Theo, Age 22, Tallahassee FL USA
    //\\   Email & Jabber: theo at theoretic.com
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