RE: James Clark: XML versus the Web

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

Hi Folks,

-----
ISSUE 
-----
Quantitatively compare the complexity of SGML versus JSON versus (XML + XML Namespaces + XML Infoset + XML Base + xml:id + XML Schema Part1 + XML Schema Part 2)

-------
METRICS
-------
Assume that the complexity of a technology can be (crudely) measured using the length of its specification--the longer the specification, the more functionality that must be implemented and therefore the greater the complexity.

------------
MEASUREMENTS
------------
SGML: 150 pages

JSON: 10 pages

XML: 60 pages

XML Namespaces: 14 pages

XML Infoset: 17 pages

XML Base: 9 pages

xml:id: 11 pages

XML Schema Part 1: 196 pages

XML Schema Part 2: 150 pages

XML + XML Namespaces + XML Infoset + XML Base + xml:id + XML Schema Part1 + XML Schema Part 2 = 456 pages

--------
ANALYSIS
--------
The XML set of technologies is roughly 3 times more complex than SGML and roughly 45 times more complex than JSON.

----------
REFERENCES
----------
"The official SGML specification is over 150 very technical pages." http://docstore.mik.ua/orelly/xml/xmlnut/ch01_04.htm  

JSON RFC: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4627.txt  

XML: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/ 

XML Namespace: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/ 

XML Infoset: http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-infoset/ 

XML Base: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlbase/ 

xml:id: http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-id/ 

XML Schema Part 1: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-1/ 

XML Schema Part 2: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/ 


/Roger