RE: [xml-dev] RE: Data Interoperability ... Why do some XMLvocabularies

["Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>]

> If everyone used the same application there would be no need for data 
> interchangeability. "interchangeability" implies the possibility of > 1.
> If everyone uses the same app XML would be irrelevant.  

I appreciate your feedback David and David. It is helping me to clarify and refine my argument.

Consider XSLT. I can create an XSLT document and run it on my XSLT processor. I can send the XSLT document to you and you run it on your XSLT processor. We get the same behavior. We agree perfectly on what the <xsl:for-each> element means and how it should behave. Ditto for all the other elements and attributes in the XSLT vocabulary.

We have successfully interoperated. 

What enabled this? 

What enabled the interoperability is the fact that we are using the same Prime App. (You may be using Xalan and I may be using Saxon; they both belong to the same class of Prime Apps.) 

I can create a second XSLT document and send it to you. Again, perfect interoperability. And a third. And so forth. The Prime App allows endless different XSLT transforms to be created, exchanged and executed with perfect understanding/interoperability.


/Roger