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+1 (And +3 if I may.)
sdw
Michael Champion wrote:
>
> On Apr 12, 2004, at 7:58 AM, Elliotte Rusty Harold wrote:
>
>>
>> Different: not OK. If it's not a text format fully compatible with
>> the XML specification, then it's not XML, and please don't use the
>> word "XML" (or preferably the initial letter X) to describe it. XML
>> is text. XML is syntax. XML is not the infoset. The infoset is
>> derived from XML, not the other way around. SAX and DOM are are APIs
>> for processing XML. XML is not a serialization format for SAX and
>> DOM. Alternate representations of the Infoset are not XML. Alternate
>> formats that expose a SAX or DOM API are not XML.
>
>
>
> That is a sensible position (and obviously shared by one of the
> editors of the XML 1.0 spec), but it is not Revealed Truth. I, for
> example, think of "XML" as the whole bloody mess -- syntax, data
> models, APIs, query languages, whatnot. I agree that adding
> additional qualifiers is the best way to be specific in a context that
> requires a distinction, e.g. "XML 1.x syntax" or "XQuery data model."
> I realize that some people are quite firmly of the opinion that "XML"
> means "XML 1.x syntax", and that "binary XML" is an oxymoron. But
> XQuery (explicitly) and DOM, XPath, etc.(implicitly) do not depend on
> inputs in XML syntax.
>
> A religious debate over the true meaning of "XML" seems doomed to
> cause far more schims within the XML community and confusion in the
> world outside XML geekdom than any increase in semantic precision
> would gain anyone. I'm comfortable saying that XML is sortof a
> trinity -- "one technology in three persons" : syntax, data model,
> manipulation language -- but recognize that these are essentially
> vague and interdependent concepts that will probably never be
> clarified to anyone's satisfaction. Likewise, there are alternatives
> on any one axis so long as one doesn't get too far away from the
> middle on all axes as once. A bit uncertain, perhaps, but such is life.
>
> In other words, IMHO "XML" is a fuzzy set, not an Aristotelian
> category. Trying to define it or rigidly constrain it --"XML is not a
> serialization format for SAX and DOM. Alternate representations of the
> Infoset are not XML. Alternate formats that expose a SAX or DOM API
> are not XML. " -- is an interesting academic (or mailing list)
> exercise, but let's not get dogmatic about it ... and leave the
> flamethrowers at home.
>
> [Aside, speakiing of a "trinity": The challenge of defining the
> Trinity apparently keeps certain people occupied fighting the numerous
> heresies still today.
> http://apologetics.johndepoe.com/trinityfalse.html is the top Google
> hit for "trinity heresies" and contains the fascinating tidbit that
> those who believe that the Trinity is one Being in three persons are
> orthodox, but those who believe that it is one person with three ways
> of working are guilty of the Modalist heresy. I remember a college
> history teacher who had a bit of fun tripping up the professed
> Christians in the class with their inability to distinguish the
> Revealed Truth from the various historical heresies. "Sorry, you
> would have been burned at the stake for holding that opinion." I
> wonder if the believers in the Revealed Truth in the class remember
> that session as clearly as I do 30 years later... I certainly came
> away with a lifelong non-interest in making rigid distinctions about
> intrinsically fuzzy concepts]
>
>
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Stephen D. Williams 703-724-0118W 703-995-0407Fax 20147-4622 AIM: sdw
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