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IMHO this discussion is confusing because it equates two distinct
things. Vocabularies and Processing. Example you say "Assertion: an XML vocabulary that has aspirations of ending up in the marketplace must be described by a specification that provides both meaning and effect. Do you agree? " I think this is misleading. The vocabularies themselves typically do not "end up in the marketplace" but rather tools that make use of vocabularies do. XSLT as a vocabulary is not something that is sold, but an XSLT Processor is. There is cases where designers are paid to create vocabularies, but I would assert that a vocabulary itself is typically not marketed, even if proprietary or commercial. So this is mixing "vocabulary" with "processor" while they are different things. The other confusion is the assertion that vocabularies are intended for a particular processor. This is not universally true. Some (many?) vocabularies are intended to represent data or content but themselves have absolutely no aspirations of processing or presentation. Your example of <Author> is a good one. It would depend in what greater vocabulary this resides as if it is intended to have any "effect". If <Author> is in a BOOK vocabulary stored in a database it may not ever have any "effect". It could be pure data there for the searching. Many XML vocabularies are of this sort where the primary purpose is to describe data, not presentation. Does this become "in the marketplace" ? I think a good example of this is HL7v3. This is a large and complex vocabulary. However it is not necessarily intended to have an "effect", or atleast not a single "effect". (there are portions which describe messaging but overall this is a Document vocabulary without a specific presentation defined). But processors that consume and produce HL7v3 data indeed are "in the marketplace". How come ? Because it is useful to have a common interchange format for clinical encounter data even without specifying exactly how it is presented or what the "effect" is. David A. Lee dlee@calldei.com http://www.calldei.com http://www.xmlsh.org 812-482-5224 Costello, Roger L. wrote: 9E51F88D5247B648908850C35A3BBB50040DD495CE@IMCMBX3.MITRE.ORG" type="cite">Awesome message Ken. Thanks! |