RE: What is an XML document?

["Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@ingr.com>]

Absolutely.  "Meaning" is by choice of means 
and application of means.   The processor (a means) tells 
you if the intent (the production) meets the 
definition (the schema if valid, the processor 
conforming rules if well-formed).  Trust but verify.

http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/ms/what/shannonday/shannon1948.pdf

Paragraph two expresses the fundamental resolution. 
It is always a choice, or if you prefer, test or 
experiment.  The fundamental issue of semantics 
is to agree on a control (the spec for global 
agreement, the schema for local agreement).

How does it go:  "God created integers.  All the 
rest is the work of man."  An XML document is not 
an integer.

Len Bullard
Intergraph Public Safety
clbullar@ingr.com
http://www.mp3.com/LenBullard

Ekam sat.h, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti.
Daamyata. Datta. Dayadhvam.h


-----Original Message-----
From: John Cowan [mailto:jcowan@reutershealth.com]
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2001 10:03 AM
To: Dan Connolly '; xml-dev@xml.org
Subject: Re: What is an XML document?


Dan Connolly wrote:

> Hmm... I think I still disagree, but now we seem to have enough
> shared context to get back to the point:
> 
> Does determining whether some particular object is an XML document
> depend on experiment? Surely not, right?

I think so; we have to look at it to see if its
character sequence matches the document production, etc.