• From: Rick Jelliffe <rjelliffe@a...>
• To: XML Developers List <xml-dev@l...>
• Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:48:04 +1100

All computers can do is play with symbols: labels and pointers.

XML is just a syntax for annotating strings with labels and pointers. It 
may even be that successful systems try to defer or avoid or hide issues 
of semantics as much as possible: some data with a highly specific 
semantic is just sent as a string, or as a number. Rather than saying 
"how can we clarify the semantics of this  data" sometimes you need to 
say "how can we neutralize the semantic problems with this data?"

Cheers
Rick Jelliffe

• Follow-Ups:
  • RE: "XML is just syntax" versus "Use semantic markup" (Is this a paradox?)
    • From: "Michael Kay" <mike@s...>
  • Re: "XML is just syntax" versus "Use semantic markup" (Is this a paradox?)
    • From: "James Fuller" <james.fuller.2007@g...>

• References:
  • "XML is just syntax" versus "Use semantic markup" (Is this a paradox?)
    • From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@m...>