xml-dev - Re: separation of formatting...

[Paul Prescod <papresco@technologist.com>]

Robin Cover wrote:
> 
> I think these are ideas that don't apply, at least so obviously,
> to programming languages.  SGML does (did) have a religious aspect
> to it, but provided inadequate formal means to guard its dogma.

I don't believe that SGML has a dogma (though many practitioners do). It
allows a better way of doing things, but it also explicitly allowed the
old way (else, why processing instructions?). If the ISO WG believed
completely in the "abstraction not formatting" mantra, then they would
never have allowed the Standard Page Description Language to be developed.
I think they believe: "abstraction, not processing instructions, when
possible."

 Paul Prescod  - http://itrc.uwaterloo.ca/~papresco

"Perpetually obsolescing and thus losing all data and programs every 10
years (the current pattern) is no way to run an information economy or
a civilization." - Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog
http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/10124.html

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