Question

I have a program that uses XML formatted rules to create executable code for run-time. I have to define some actions and logical constructs using my own dialect. I have OR, AND, and NOT constructs and now I need to implement IF..THEN..ELSE.

I’m trying to come up with a syntax that would make sense and here’s what I have so far:

<IF id='if-1'>
    <TIME from="5pm" to="9pm" />
</IF>
<THEN id='if-1'>
    <...some actions defined.../>
</THEN>
<ELSE id='if-1'>
    <...other set of actions defined here.../>
</ELSE>

If looks difficult to read to me, but I don’t see a cleaner way to represent this without doing too much nesting. Does anyone have a suggestion? (not using XML is not an option at this point in time 🙂 )

Answer 1

I personally think that the if/then/else needs to be linked somehow.

<IF something>
    <some actions>
<THEN something>
    <some actions>
</THEN>
<ELSE something>
    <some actions>
</ELSE>
</IF>