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- From: Paul Prescod <paul@prescod.net>
- To: "'XML Dev'" <xml-dev@ic.ac.uk>
- Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 08:02:44 -0600
David Megginson wrote:
>
> > I took it the same way. But doesn't that violate the principle of
> > XML as being self-describing?
>
> First, there is no such published principle for XML itself, though the
> Namespaces spec provides an infrastructure for such a thing.
Debatably the principle of self-describing-ness is encoded in both the XML
declaration (unfortunately optional!) and the DOCTYPE declaration.
> Second, it in no way violates it, because if you recognise the
> namespaces/elements being used, you can still figure out that you're
> dealing with RDF (and if not, fat lot of good they'll do you anyway).
Wouldn't it be useful for a generic RDF processor (e.g. viewer, search
engine) to be able to recognize RDF in arbitrary documents?
Personally, I do feel that the optional RDF element is a bad idea. I have
had many bad experiences with "implied declarations" like <!DOCTYPE HTML
...> and <!SGML ...>. "Say what you are!" In this case the obvious way for
RDF elements to say that they are RDF elements without enforcing a
particular vocabulary would be to use attributes -- but that sounds like a
smelly old SGML-ish idea.
--
Paul Prescod - ISOGEN Consulting Engineer speaking for only himself
http://itrc.uwaterloo.ca/~papresco
"If you were casting Bob Kane's character by disposition, you would
never in a million years think Michael Keaton or George Clooney.
Good God: George Clooney? If you were casting Bob Kane's Batman, even
the likes of Tim Roth or Christopher Walken would be much too
lighthearted to play this demonic avenger."
- http://www.salonmagazine.com/feature/1998/11/06feature.html
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