ETH Zurich Computer Science Databases and Information Systems

Welcome to the Webserver of the XL Group at ETH Zurich.

An XML Programming Language

XL (XML programming language, i.e. a language whose only type system is the XML type system and not a language whose syntax is described using XML vocabulary) is specially designed for the implementation of Web services.

XL is

• portable and
• fully compliant with all W3C standards such as XQuery, XML Protocol, and XML Schema.

One of the key features of XL is that it allows programmers to concentrate on the logic of their application.

XL provides high-level and declarative constructs for actions which are typically carried out in the implementation of a Web service; e.g.,

• logging,
• error handling,
• retry of actions,
• workload management,
• events, etc

Issues such as performance tuning (e.g., caching, horizontal partitioning, etc.) can be carried out automatically by an implementation of the language. This way, the productivity of the programmers, the ability of evolution of the Web service specific programs and their chances to achieve good performance are substantially enhanced.