xml-dev - RE: Feeler for SML (Simple Markup Language)

[Leigh Dodds <ldodds@ingenta.com>]

> A "standard", or really a sortof an informal contract, saying I won't send
> you messages or documents with any attributes, PIs, entities, etc.
> This lets you optimize your code to be blissfully ignorant of them.  But
> without a "contract" saying what we won't send each other, there are many
> potentials> for interoperability failures.  I might send Don a document
with
> attributes (which I happen to like) but his processor chokes on. It would
be
> better to form a wide consensus on EXACTLY what subset of XML the "SML
community"
> would understand.

Well isn't your contract between your and Dons processors going to be
the 'protocol' for your application. Can't that protocol just say
"We're using XML, but without any attributes, and...". You've still got
to define the message formats so define them without recourse
to PIs, entities, attributes, etc, etc.

> Right.  But your true-XML parser, DOM/SAX APIs, transformation
> engines, etc. will be bloated with all sorts of code that will never be
> executed.  If I'm writing applications for cellphones, that matters!

Granted. Although if my cellphone is running a Java VM and is downloading
code as it goes, then I only need to download the PI/entity/attribute
handler code as needed. So the bloat could be mitigated.

L.


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