Using xsd:list and getting data from xml file

[liam mail <liam.list@googlemail.com>]

Hello
Until recently I use the following format for a matrix
<matrix m01="1.000000" m02="0.000000" m03="0.000000" m04="0.000000"
m05="0.000000" m06="1.000000" m07="0.000000" m08="0.000000"
m09="0.000000" m10="0.000000" m11="1.000000" m12="0.000000"
m13="0.000000" m14="0.000000" m15="0.000000" m16="1.000000" />

Yet after reading the schema primer I changed this to the following format
        <matrix16> 

        	<vector4>1.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000</vector4>

        	<vector4>0.000000 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000</vector4>

        	<vector4>0.000000 0.000000 1.000000 0.000000</vector4>

        	<vector4>0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 1.000000</vector4>

        </matrix16>

Which is validated by the following snippet of schema 

<xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" >

<xsd:element name="matrix16" type="matrix16_type"/>
	<xsd:simpleType name="float_list">

		<xsd:list itemType="xsd:float"/>
	</xsd:simpleType>
	
	<xsd:simpleType name="vector4_type">
		<xsd:restriction base="float_list">

			<xsd:length value="4"/>
		</xsd:restriction>
	</xsd:simpleType>
	
	<xsd:complexType name="matrix16_type">

		<xsd:sequence>
			<xsd:element name="vector4" type="vector4_type" minOccurs="4" maxOccurs="4"/>

		</xsd:sequence>
	</xsd:complexType>	
</xsd:schema>

Now the xml file passes validation but I do not know of an xml libraries which allows me access to this data without myself
parsing it, as I was informed that "XML specifies that the innermost content of a tag is CDATA". If I used this list in an attribute of an

element the same situation would apply. 

So my question to the mailing list is should I have changed the organisation of the xml from my original format or how can 
I get to the data without having to parse it myself.

Thanks.