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RE: What is declarative XML? (And what's not)

• From: "Michael Kay" <mike@saxonica.com>
• To: "'Costello, Roger L.'" <costello@mitre.org>,<xml-dev@l...>
• Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 00:23:34 +0100

> Alan Danziger wrote:
> 
> > Passive documents specify information but do not specify in-band or 
> > out-of-band anything about how that information should be used.
> 
> > Active documents contains in-band or out-of-band processing 
> rules for 
> > its use.
> 
> Ah ha!
> 
> So there are discernable differences in XML documents.

No, that doesn't follow. If the information is out-of-band, then it's not
discernable and is not a difference in the document, it's a difference in
the way it is used.
> 
> Assertion: declarativity is a quality that is good and 
> desirable and should be maximized.
> 
> Assertion: passivity is a quality that is good and desirable 
> and should be maximized.
> 
> Assertion: by measuring its declarativity and passivity we 
> can assess the goodness of an XML document. 
> 
> Assertion: the goodness of an XML document is a function of 
> its declarativity and passivity.
> 

I think you're completely off target here. It all depends what the document
is for. If you're trying to say that a document containing an instruction to
move $1000 from account A to account B is bad because it's active and
procedural, then I would say that's nonsense. Or at any rate, I would say
"why is it bad?".

Regards,

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
http://twitter.com/michaelhkay 

• References:
  • Re: What is declarative XML? (And what's not)
    • From: Rick Jelliffe <rjelliffe@allette.com.au>
  • RE: What is declarative XML? (And what's not)
    • From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>