Bug#177315: RFP: 4dml -- A different sort of structured-data transformation utility

["Silas S. Brown" <ssb22@cam.ac.uk>]

Package: wnpp
Version: N/A; reported 2003-01-18
Severity: wishlist

* Package name    : 4dml
  Version         : x.y.z
  Upstream Author : Name <somebody@some.org>
* URL             : http://www.flatline.org.uk/~silas/4dml
* License         : GPL
  Description     : A different sort of structured-data transformation utility

4DML is a tool for structure transformation, like XSLT, TXL,
Rigal, etc.  4DML's approach is different: You provide a
"model" of the desired output structure, and 4DML determines
from that model how the input is to be read.  This means you
don't have to write so many "rules".  Although 4DML is slow
to run, its models are (in many cases) quicker to write and
easier to maintain; hence it can be useful for prototyping
transformations.

4DML works by representing the structure in a geometric
space with many dimensions, where the model acts as an
alternate frame of reference.  It can easily handle matrix
transposition (sometimes needed in musical notation) and
otherwise changing the permutation of different levels of
the tree.  It's also possible to write transformations that
follow links (in either direction).

There should be more documentation for 4DML soon because I'm
writing up my thesis on it.  Anyone intending to package it
can contact me about this.

-- System Information
Debian Release: 3.0
Architecture: i386
Kernel: Linux ssb22 2.4.18 #10 Wed Jul 3 00:22:04 BST 2002 i686
Locale: LANG=en_GB, LC_CTYPE=en_GB