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RE: XPath 1.5? (was RE: typing and markup)

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: RE: XPath 1.5? (was RE: typing and markup)
• From: Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@m...>
• Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 12:47:02 -0400
• In-reply-to: <5.1.0.14.0.20020507092646.04dfc880@n...>
• References: <<DC1124C4368AA9438D9DEC34ECB6F162013EBB11@o...><DC1124C4368AA9438D9DEC34ECB6F162013EBB11@o...><5.1.0.14.0.20020507092646.04dfc880@n...>

At 9:28 AM -0700 5/7/02, Jonathan Robie wrote:

>>Because an XML document is defined as a finite sequences of characters.
>
>Actually, XML Schema defines value spaces for the various types, and 
>many people are doing XML views of persistent data.

But the schema is most definitely *not* a fundamental part of the XML 
document. What the schema says is in the document does not change 
what is in the document. What is in the document are strings, not 
numbers, not dates, but strings. You may choose to apply a  certain 
schema to the document and use the information in that schema to 
inform the processing choices you make; but that in no way implies 
that I or anyone else has to apply the same schema, or indeed any 
schema at all.  You may call <foo>45.67</foo> a float. I may call it 
a BigDecimal or a Money or an Address, but all it really is is a 
string. Each of us would have to instantiate the relevant type we 
want from the string we actually have.
-- 

+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
| Elliotte Rusty Harold | elharo@m... | Writer/Programmer |
+-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+
|          The XML Bible, 2nd Edition (Hungry Minds, 2001)           |
|             http://www.cafeconleche.org/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.cafeconleche.org/    |
+----------------------------------+---------------------------------+

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: XPath 1.5? (was RE: typing and markup)
    • From: John Cowan <jcowan@r...>
  • RE: XPath 1.5? (was RE: typing and markup)
    • From: Jonathan Robie <jonathan.robie@d...>

• References:
  • RE: XPath 1.5? (was RE: typing and markup)
    • From: Matthew Gertner <matthew.gertner@s...>
  • RE: XPath 1.5? (was RE: typing and markup)
    • From: Jonathan Robie <jonathan.robie@d...>

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