XML play-doh. A universal canvas requires a universal way to represent data. Other solutions are conceivable, but let’s accept for now that XML is a reasonable one, and that it’s here to stay. How does XML become Play-doh? The first answer, for me, was Perl with its XML::Parser module. Then came XSLT (XSL Transformation), which traded away procedural idioms to gain declarative transformational power. Then came Python with its libxml/libxslt modules, which married the procedural and declarative styles in a highly interactive way. That’s been my weapon of choice lately, but now there’s a new contender: E4X (ECMAScript for XML). … [Jon’s Radio]