On 11/08/2009, at 6:01 PM, J.Fine wrote:

> There are some interesting ideas here, but why implement them in TeX  
> macros?  How will you translate LaTeX documents into XML?
>
> Surely to do this you will need a LaTeX->XML translator written in / 
> some other language/.  And once you have that, why do you need an  
> implementation written in TeX macros?

Simple: I prefer to write in LaTeX than in XML. I have yet to see an  
XML dialect I wish to write by hand; I originally thought Gellmu was  
similar to such a thing, but I've yet to fully understand -- through  
lack of time -- the relationship between SGML/XML and the Gellmu syntax.

Also, xparse will be used for LaTeX2e documents and packages as well,  
which are very much rooted to the TeX world.

It's not clear to me what is the best way to approach the problem of  
HypotheticalLaTeX3 to XML. Half of me wants the XML to be generated  
from LaTeX macros as they expand, \write-ing the necessary structural  
information and transforming the input text as the document is typeset  
to PDF. But that's mostly just a silly idea.

Will