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Re: limits of the generic

• To: jonathan.robie@d... (Jonathan Robie)
• Subject: Re: limits of the generic
• From: John Cowan <jcowan@r...>
• Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 11:39:10 -0400 (EDT)
• Cc: wperry@f... (W. E. Perry), xml-dev@l... (XML DEV)
• In-reply-to: <5.1.0.14.0.20020930112316.020f4ec8@n...> from "Jonathan Robie" at Sep 30, 2002 11:30:03 AM

Jonathan Robie scripsit:

> > Where there is a contract in the form of a DTD or other schema,
> > it is binding only upon the data creator who chooses to identify
> > and then to abide by it. From the data recipient's point of view,
> > that contract is no more than the data creator's undertaking to present
> > particular classes of data in a particular consistent form.
> 
> I'm not sure that I understand. If a data creator and a data recipient 
> agree to use a given schema, then the data recipient may reject any data 
> that does not validate according to the schema, on the grounds that it does 
> not conform to the agreement.

There need be no agreement between recipient and creator.  The creator may
simply announce that his documents conform to a certain schema.  At best,
it is the creator who is bound thereby: the recipient does not have to
do anything in particular with a given document whether valid or not.

The case is otherwise, of course, if the recipient is a server: servers have
their own contracts about what they will do with incoming documents.  But if
the recipient is basically a listener, then he is not bound.

> Obviously, once a program gets ahold of data, it can do whatever it wants 
> with that data. Sometimes that may involve casting. I am not sure what 
> issues you are concerned about here.

AFAIU he wants to keep the freedom to manipulate incoming data at the syntax
level, and not be bound by a "universal" data-binding engine that disappears
the XML in favor of some specific instantiation of it.

I think his concerns are overblown, but not unreasonable in principle.

-- 
Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis vom dies! || John Cowan <jcowan@r...>
Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau,  || http://www.reutershealth.com
Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau,           || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Und trank die Milch vom Paradies.            -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)

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