Re: xml-dev Digest 16 Jun 2015 13:16:23 -0000 Issue 3115

[Nicholas Sushkin <nsushkin@openfinance.com>]

On Tuesday, June 16, 2015 13:16:23 xml-dev-digest-help@lists.xml.org wrote:
> Text is data encoded based on some human writing system. (Contrast with
> binary, which is not a human writing system; or with hex which is binary
> written with codes developed for a human writing system. )
> 
> In markup, "Text" often is used in signify that the data does not
> necessarily conform to third-normal-formish rules like atomicity.

Binary and text are not on the same plane. Text is something a human can read. 
Binary is something a computer can read. For computers, text needs to be 
encoded as binary. Is Unicode binary or text? I think both. 

Even the distinction between text and images is very blurry. What is a glyph, 
a smiley, an emoji, an illuminated letter: text or image? I think those have 
features of both.

I can apply a textual algorithm to a PDF or SVG file that may contains both 
characters and outlines.