xml-dev - Re: Why the Infoset?

[John Cowan <jcowan@reutershealth.com>]

Richard Lanyon wrote:
 
> Why not? The infoset seems mainly to be a guide for (W3C)
> spec-writers, saying "unless you can think of a good reason otherwise,
> your spec should deal mainly with /this/ level of abstraction of XML
> documents". Most W3C specs (DOM, XPath) do operate at more-or-less the
> same level of abstraction, so using the infoset just takes the
> "more-or-less" bit out and ensures that most future specs operate at
> /exactly/ the same level of abstraction. This seems to me to be rather
> useful.

Almost exactly right, with two caveats:

1) Not only W3C spec-writers, but
other spec-writers, and indeed programmers insofar as they write specs
for their programs, are the intended customers.

2) For "exactly the same level" read "broadly the same level"; some variation
is expected and is supported.

-- 

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