xml-dev - Re: ubiquitous XML?

[Rick JELLIFFE <ricko@geotempo.com>]

"Simon St.Laurent" wrote:
 sed, I've had less and less hope for this vision.  Not
> because of the familiar claim that 'data modeling is hard', but because the
> supporting standards for XML seem intent on growing more complex and more
> obscure simultaneously.  

One of XML's big problems is that should hide grammar issues (because
most people do not have formal traiing in grammars, epsecially MIS
people; and because the notion of "tokens" and grammars are often
non-intuitive to people who do not write with spaces, and are therefore
culturally biased) but instead it brings them to the forefront with
content models (DTDs, XML Schema Definition Language, RELAX).

SGML needed to base itself on grammars because one can switch in an out
delimiter maps depending on context, so that a new line could be treated
as a reference to some tag.  But XML does not need or support this.  

I love DTDs and grammars, both the idea of them and their practicality,
but they are the real "hangover" from SGML that we would do well to
jettison.

Cheers
Rick Jelliffe