I've got a groundbreaking idea.

What if, instead of just plain XML, or any other markup language for that matter, we build an executable file that upon execution prints whatever is stored in the file? That way we can run like:

$ ./index.xml

And then see the output of the file on stdout. Since the file is binary, we can't just edit it with emacs, so we have to make the file edit itself! For example:

$ ./index.xml --edit-node 3 --set-attribute name=haskell

What do you guys think, /prog/rammers?

>>1
How about we use a LISP program to store the actual data in such a way that running it will produce the XML document? Like this

(doctype whatever)
(node
  (subnode (list ('attribute value) ('another other)))
;node)
results:
<?DOCTYPE ...>
<node>
  <subnode attribute=value another=other/>
</node>
Suddenly XSLT looks like a dirty hack.