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> If you start allowing
> control characters (which are somewhat debatable *as* characters in the
> first place), it becomes very easy to abuse the power and to have
> application-specific uses of embedded encodings. This is effectively what
> Mr. Rhys from MS wanted: the ability to store arbitrary binary streams
> inside XML encoded data.
> The problem is that XML is *text*. It is made from *characters*, and
> arbitrary binary strings have no place in it. Once you change that, you
> have essentially ruined XML as a textual markup language.
This argument seems to apply equally against Base64 encoding as it does
against control characters.
I think of XML not as a textual markup language, but rather as a layer over
which markup languages can be defined. Why is it the job of XML to prevent
characters that are not appropriate for some classes of markup languages?
Jim
---------------------------
Jim Theriot
mailto:Jim.Theriot@posc.org
POSC -- Energy eStandards
9801 Westheimer, Suite 450
Houston TX USA 77042
+1 713 267 5109 : phone
+1 713 784 9219 : fax
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