[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message]

RE: Some comments on the 1.1 draft

• To: "Gavin Thomas Nicol" <gtn@r...>, <xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: RE: Some comments on the 1.1 draft
• From: "J C Theriot" <theriot@p...>
• Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 11:29:58 -0600
• Importance: Normal
• In-reply-to: <E16Gk2H-0003R9-00@s...>
• Reply-to: <jim.theriot@p...>

> If you start allowing
> control characters (which are somewhat debatable *as* characters in the
> first place), it becomes very easy to abuse the power and to have
> application-specific uses of embedded encodings. This is effectively what
> Mr. Rhys from MS wanted: the ability to store arbitrary binary streams
> inside XML encoded data.

> The problem is that XML is *text*. It is made from *characters*, and
> arbitrary binary strings have no place in it. Once you change that, you
> have essentially ruined XML as a textual markup language.

This argument seems to apply equally against Base64 encoding as it does
against control characters.

I think of XML not as a textual markup language, but rather as a layer over
which markup languages can be defined.  Why is it the job of XML to prevent
characters that are not appropriate for some classes of markup languages?

Jim
---------------------------
Jim Theriot
mailto:Jim.Theriot@p...
POSC -- Energy eStandards
9801 Westheimer, Suite 450
Houston TX USA 77042
+1 713 267 5109 : phone
+1 713 784 9219 : fax
---------------------------

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Some comments on the 1.1 draft
    • From: Gavin Thomas Nicol <gtn@r...>
  • Re: Some comments on the 1.1 draft
    • From: Eric van der Vlist <vdv@d...>

• References:
  • Re: Some comments on the 1.1 draft
    • From: Gavin Thomas Nicol <gtn@r...>

• Prev by Date: RE: terra incognita
• Next by Date: Re: terra incognita
• Previous by thread: Re: Some comments on the 1.1 draft
• Next by thread: Re: Some comments on the 1.1 draft
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread