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At 5:51 PM +0100 1/15/02, Nicolas LEHUEN wrote: >Maybe what we try to say is that from a programmatical point of view, there >is no added information in a format where the meta-data is embedded into the >data, compared to a format where meta-data is expressed in a header and pure >data follows. The only advantage is for human eyes ; it is great for >debugging. But one should never think that embedding meta-data within data >gives any advantage to XML vs. "header-then-data" formats. That's exactly what I do think. Embedding meta-data within data offers huge advantages. Debugging's just one of them. XML formats are more robust. They are easier to author. They are easier to edit. They are fail-fast. They make it very easy to find and fix problems when they do arise. They are easier to extend into non-tabular structures. They are better in a very real sense. That's why people use them. > Your definition >of "opacity" is anthropomorphical ; from a computer perspective, XML and CSV >are equally crystal clear on the lexical level and completely opaque on the >semantic level. > I'm not totally convinced that XML is quite as semantically opaque to a computer as you think, but even granting that we have two formats which are the same to a computer but one is significantly better for people. Guess which one I choose? -- +-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+ | Elliotte Rusty Harold | elharo@m... | Writer/Programmer | +-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+ | The XML Bible, 2nd Edition (Hungry Minds, 2001) | | http://www.ibiblio.org/xml/books/bible2/ | | http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0764547607/cafeaulaitA/ | +----------------------------------+---------------------------------+ | Read Cafe au Lait for Java News: http://www.cafeaulait.org/ | | Read Cafe con Leche for XML News: http://www.ibiblio.org/xml/ | +----------------------------------+---------------------------------+
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