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On 8/5/02 8:04 AM, "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...> wrote: > At 09:34 PM 8/4/2002 -0700, Micah Dubinko wrote: >> An unpopular (but possible with current technology) answer is that the ° and >> ' and " and even N|S|E|W stuff is window dressing, and that the actual value >> is just a number: >> >> <zoo> >> <name>Utica Zoo</name> >> <lat>75.25</lat> >> <long>43.08333333333333</long> >> </zoo> > > No, that's not an acceptable answer. Part of the reason for using XML at > all is the possibility and even probability that humans will be playing > with these files directly and/or writing software, and preserving the > idioms they use is critical. I could have sworn that the idiom is actually more like: 75°15'00" N 43°05'00" W And I've seen: 75 15 00N 43 05 00W I'm pretty sure the idiom is *not*: <lat>75°15'00" N</lat><long>43°05'00" W</long> So. I don't think your's is an acceptable answer. > > Reductionism may be wonderful for computers, but it's not very useful for > the rest of us. At least in theory, XML is supposed to provide a middle > ground between human and machine-readable. I'll pass on the 'reductionism' stuff. There seems to me to be to be a difference of opinion of where the 'middle ground' might be found. As far as I can see this 'middle ground' is likely the place where the idiom stops and the markup begins. Where *does* the idiom stop and markup begin, anyway? Is an invoice an idiom? Is an integer an idiom? (1,000.00; 1.000,00; 1 000,00; etc) Dates? Durations? Personal names? Addresses? Phone numbers? How much of this is dealt with through rendering? Is <lat>75.25</lat> so bad if we can render it as 75°15'00" N? Does this change the 'middle ground' any? How many idioms do we have to support anyway? Is XML supposed to achieve some sort of interoperability you cannot achieve with, say, a gif? How? with all these idioms? I think this is an important question that people should attempt to answer, and I don't think 'intuitively obvious' will form any part of a good answer. While we are at it... What's the difference between what you are calling an idiom and certain other people call a data type? > > > Simon St.Laurent > "Every day in every way I'm getting better and better." - Emile Coue > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > The xml-dev list is sponsored by XML.org <http://www.xml.org>, an > initiative of OASIS <http://www.oasis-open.org> > > The list archives are at http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/ > > To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list use the subscription > manager: <http://lists.xml.org/ob/adm.pl> >
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