Re: [xml-dev] Do attributes have scope? Are attributes metadata?

[Norman Gray <norman@astro.gla.ac.uk>]

On 2012 Feb 29, at 14:03, Andrew Welch wrote:

>> I say this only to wonder whether there is _anything_ that is indisputably metadata or data.
> 
> How about the encoding in the xml prolog?

Possibly, but do you mean that the declaration is indisputably data, or indisputably metadata?

It's certainly data, because it's part of the sequence of bytes which comprise the file (or database record, or whatever...).  Alternatively, and at a higher level, it's certainly data because it's intrinsic to the structure of the XML file, viewed as a way of encoding a sequence of characters in a sequence of bytes.

Equally, it's certainly metadata, because it's data about data, namely data about the sequence of bytes which follows it, which is added because it's necessary for their correct interpretation.

I suppose I find the former a bit less of a stretch than the latter, but I'm willing to be dogmatically certain either way.

All the best,

Norman
(hang on -- it's not Friday afternoon!)


-- 
Norman Gray  :  http://nxg.me.uk
SUPA School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, UK