LMX 1.0 — Reverse XML Parser

Clever idea from Peter Hosey:

LMX is a reverse XML parser. Whereas most XML parsers (AFAIK, all of them except LMX) parse the XML data from the start to the end, LMX parses it from the end to the start. Thus, while characters are kept in their original order (“foo” will still be “foo”; it will not become “oof”), everything else is reported in the reverse order: elements close before they are opened, and appear from last to first. All this is by design, so that Adium can retrieve the last n message elements without having to parse all the message elements before them.

★ Monday, 5 March 2007