Re: [xml-dev] Formatless files

[Amelia A Lewis <amyzing@talsever.com>]

On Tue, 9 Aug 2022 23:37:56 +0200, Kit wrote:
> A file is XML if it passes XML validation. Otherwise it is not XML.

Well-formedness, I think. "Validation" when speaking of XML typically 
refers to verifying that the well-formed XML document matches the 
production(s) found in some schema language file, of which the best 
known are DTD (the original, included in the 1.0 spec), W3C XML Schema, 
and Relax NG, but there are other forms that supply different rules for 
content validation not based on grammars (Schematron most notably). All 
of them operate over well-formed XML and it's well-formedness that 
marks the boundary between "XML" and "some mess of pointy brackets and 
nonsense that can't be successfully parsed".

Amy!
-- 
Amelia A. Lewis                    amyzing {at} talsever.com
It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that 
have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are 
mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
                -- Edsger Dijkstra