Re: [xml-dev] Why is text marked up ?

[Lech Rzedzicki <xchaotic@gmail.com>]

On 19 January 2012 14:48, David Lee <dlee@calldei.com> wrote:
> "Why is text marked up" ?


How about: "to separate the optional from the mandatory"

In pretty much all my uses of markup, the annotations are hints, like
"make this text big", "this bit is in Italian" and they are very
useful, often but I can pretty much always choose to ignore them.
The core text is the essence, the actual content.
While elegant, that's merely the theory.
In practice markup very often defines the message (medium is the message).
Human brains have not developed in a vacuum and amygdala's primal
impulses still override they gray stuff often. So a big, bold sign in
RED which say "It's OK" will still be a warning, it'll make you think,
is it really?

So another good explanation would be: "to convey more information than
the text alone can"
That's why markup is as important as the text itself and that's why
there is value added in marking it up and how many on this lists
manage to scrape a living off marking up text.

Lech