xml-dev - New working draft of XML Information Set published

[Paul Grosso <pgrosso@arbortext.com>]

The W3C XML Core WG has just (2000 Dec 20) published a new 
working draft of the XML Information Set (Infoset) at:
	http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-infoset/

Excerpting from the Introduction:

  This technical report defines an abstract data set
  called the XML Information Set (Infoset). Its purpose
  is to provide a consistent set of definitions for use
  in other specifications that need to refer to the
  information in a well-formed XML document [XML]. 

  It does not attempt to be exhaustive; the primary
  criterion for inclusion of an information item or property
  has been that of expected usefulness in future specifications. 

  An XML document's information set consists of a number
  of information items (the information set for
  any well-formed XML document will contain at least
  a document information item and several others). An
  information item is an abstract representation of some
  part of an XML document: each information item
  has a set of associated properties. 

  The XML Information Set does not require or favor a
  specific interface or class of interfaces. This
  specification presents the information set as a
  modified tree for the sake of clarity and simplicity, but
  there is no requirement that the XML Information Set
  be made available through a tree structure; other
  types of interfaces, including (but not limited to)
  event-based and query-based interfaces are also
  capable of providing information conforming to the
  XML Information Set. As long as the information in the
  information set is made available to XML applications
  in one way or another, the requirements of this
  document are satisfied. 

  The terms "information set" and "information item" are
  similar in meaning to the generic terms "tree" and
  node", as they are used in computing. However, the
  latter terms were avoided in this document to
  reduce possible confusion with other specific data
  models. Information items do not map one-to-one with
  the Nodes of the DOM or the "tree" and "nodes" of the
  XPath data model. 

Quoting from the status:

  Though this specification has already had a Last Call
  review on an earlier version, in light of the review
  much discussion, the XML Core Working Group has
  reworked the specification. The WG has decided to
  publish this working draft as representing its latest
  work and invites public comment on this specification. 

  Comments on this document are invited and are to be sent
  to the public mailing list www-xml-infoset-comments@w3.org.
  An archive is available at
  http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-xml-infoset-comments/ .

paul

Paul Grosso, XML Core WG co-chair