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

• To: Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@m...>,Matthew Gertner <matthew.gertner@s...>,xml-dev@l...
• Subject: RE: XPath 1.5? (was RE: typing and markup)
• From: Jonathan Robie <jonathan.robie@d...>
• Date: Tue, 07 May 2002 09:28:31 -0700
• In-reply-to: <p04330109b8fd9534e699@[192.168.254.4]>
• References: < <DC1124C4368AA9438D9DEC34ECB6F162013EBB11@o...><DC1124C4368AA9438D9DEC34ECB6F162013EBB11@o...>

At 10:38 AM 5/7/2002 -0400, Elliotte Rusty Harold wrote:
>At 3:26 PM +0200 5/7/02, Matthew Gertner wrote:
>>Admittedly I am just restating the problem, but I am curious to know why you
>>are so convinced that the data in XML documents are strings that can be
>>translated into other data types when necessary,
>
>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.

>>  and not dates, number, etc.
>>that are serialized as strings when an XML document is instantiated.
>
>In this case, you have some other data that is not an XML document. This 
>data is then translated into strings which are stored in an XML document. 
>However, not all XML documents are created this way. A general purpose 
>technology like XSLT/XPath that has to be defined for all XML documents 
>cannot rely on characteristics that apply to only some XML documents; e.g. 
>that they were created by converting numbers into strings.

I suspect much of this argument is between people who merely use XML as a 
transport and serialization technology, and those who actually do 
processing of XML that involves some knowledge of the types involved.

Jonathan

• Follow-Ups:
  • RE: XPath 1.5? (was RE: typing and markup)
    • From: Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@m...>

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  • 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: Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@m...>

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