Re: [xml-dev] Does the XML syntax have an underlying data model?

[John Cowan <johnwcowan@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 5:06 PM, Jim Melton <jim.melton@oracle.com> wrote:

Obviously, the people who designed the Infoset and the PSVI did not need that information for their purposes, and the models don't contain that information...same with the XQuery Data Model. 

The Infoset was meant to be a default data model.  From the Introduction:

This specification defines an abstract data set called the XML Information Set (Infoset). Its purpose is to provide a consistent set of definitions for use in other specifications that need to refer to the information in a well-formed XML document. 

 

It does not attempt to be exhaustive; the primary criterion for inclusion of an information item or property has been that of expected usefulness in future specifications. Nor does it constitute a minimum set of information that must be returned by an XML processor. 

In SGML terms, it was originally intended to be a property set, but ended up being a grove plan, a default grove plan that would be good enough for generic purposes.  When I first presented on it to the NYC XML SIG, someone asked me "What is the Infoset?"  I replied "You look to me like you know what a grove plan is."  He nodded, and I added.  "It's a grove plan and that's all that it is."  He nodded again.

--

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silensyo kada dya ke Dyo da, komoser sikileoso sin saver porke.

                        --Marcel Cohen, 1985