The entire US Code is now online in XML

Post by rottyguy » Wed, Jul 31, 2013, 6:42 PM UTC

bjr- wrote: post #12

calpaterson wrote: post #2

For those of us who don't know anything about it, what are the uses of machine readable law?

The law can be interpreted as a set of rules matched against an action in a particular context to determine whether said action is legal. Right now lots of people do this manually. Maybe computers can do it better. If computers can do it better, maybe people could focus on writing new laws and refactoring old ones instead of repeatedly interpreting old laws for each case.

Post by pnathan » Wed, Jul 31, 2013, 6:43 PM UTC

sigzero wrote: post #29

tianhe wrote: post #4

XML? this should be in json!

Why? JSON should just be for data transfers. XML is for document formats. While the lines get seriously blurred that is there general use.

Post by smackfu » Wed, Jul 31, 2013, 6:44 PM UTC

pnathan wrote: post #6

I'm really tempted to collect the XML files and put them on github, with periodic checkpoints to update it with the latest. Watching the evolution of law over time is a fascinating thing and using SW engineering tools to help would be really fun.

Post by Symmetry » Wed, Jul 31, 2013, 6:48 PM UTC

pnathan wrote: post #6

I'm really tempted to collect the XML files and put them on github, with periodic checkpoints to update it with the latest. Watching the evolution of law over time is a fascinating thing and using SW engineering tools to help would be really fun.

Post by mpyne » Wed, Jul 31, 2013, 6:49 PM UTC

tbatterii wrote: post #17

now if the same could be provided for bills(ideally before they are voted on), and that should go in github or something.