[
Lists Home |
Date Index |
Thread Index
]
AKA, "XML separates content from presentation" and people insist
that is true when it isn't. XML enables that and one does it
because that makes the data portable. Then there is the
"XML makes data interoperable" and that isn't true either
and in fact, XML can't do anything about that at all.
We can go round and round and round this age old topic
of markup. Past the parse, every process and process
definition, interaction, forging, hiding, dealing,
and ... is all up for grabs.
But that essentially defeats the notion of blind
interoperability. The truth is, the web has NEVER
provided that and I can't conceive of a system doing
any useful work that does. It simply comes down
to how much one can afford or afford not to see.
That is a system definition. HTML worked because
it was fixed. When it quit being fixed and started
being extended, browsers failed. When complicated
extensions were made, if the specifications for the
extensions were ambiguous, content failed. How
much and how complicated a definition becomes depends
on how hard the task is and how many non-local
processors have to do it exactly the same way to
get the same results. No free lunch for
Schrodinger's Cat.
Invisibility cloaks are no guarantee one won't
get stepped on. Some people do need to declare
intent and type a priori. That's bad for those
who depend on invisibility cloaks to get things
done. It won't ruin the web to have others doing
complicated things; it will make it expensive to
do those things the first time and every time
they hit a new requirement. It will make it
expensive for anyone to get in the game after
the first few do.
A complex web depends on the Cat having Deep Pockets.
I read that NPR owes the web an apology. Precisely
who would that be delivered to? If someone commits
a crime to the commons, who collects restitution?
len
-----Original Message-----
From: Simon St.Laurent [mailto:simonstl@simonstl.com]
What's interesting to me about this discussion is the separation of the
information in the XML document from the processing it will receive.
Although the creators and senders of that document may have their own
expectations about how that document will be processed, there is nothing
intrinsic to the XML which binds it to particular processing.
|
