xml-dev - questions concerning RDF/DOM/XML Schema

[***Marco Kleefman*** <mr_xyz@dds.nl>]

Hello XML-experts,

I would like to ask some questions. I hope somebody can find the time to
answer it for me. I am writing a thesis about XML and related components
like RDF, DOM and XML Schema.

Statement1: XML Schema is a replacement for DTD's. It is possible to
describe the physical structure of the information-elements (just like
DTD's), but XML Schema goes further. It also adds the possibility for
expressing datatypes. DTD's have no possibility to describe the logical
structure of the information-elements. (Describing logical structure of a
document is the same as describing the semantic structure of a document.)

Q1: Is statement1 correct?
Q2: Does XML Schema has the possibility to describe the logical structure of
a document?

Statement2: The DOM is an api. It represents an XML-document in a tree-like
structure. This 'tree' is regarded as an object with several objects inside
it, representing each information-element. The DOM can only
access/manipulate/delete the physical structure of the information-elements.
The DOM knows nothing about the logical/semantic structure of the
information-elements?

Q3: Is statement2 correct?

Statement3: RDF is a model of metadata(=data about the logical/semantic
structure). An RDF-Schema is used to describe the logical/semantic structure
for a particular document, according to the rules of the RDF data model. RDF
has nothing to do with describing the physical structure of a document.

Q4: Is statement3 correct?
Q5: If XML Schema has the possibility to describe the logical structure of a
document (see Q2), then what is the difference betweeen describing the
logical structure in RDF-Schema or XML Schema?

Q5: When you know everything about the physical structure of a document, you
also know already a great deal about the logical structure of a document. Is
this correct?

My thesis has nothing to do with the technical aspects of XML and related
components. I am only interested conceptual frameworks behind the different
components.

Thanks in advance,

Marco Kleefman
The Netherlands

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