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ZML (was Re: (Fwd) Abbreviated Format for XML)

• From: Peter Murray-Rust <peter@u...>
• To: "'XML-DEV'" <xml-dev@X...>
• Date: Sat, 01 Apr 2000 10:38:21 +0100

At 12:33 AM 4/1/00 -0500, Simon St.Laurent wrote:

> I get Sorry, Not Found - maybe April Fool's? Probably not.

Nope - this is too serious to joke about. I may have got some facts wrong
about SGML but the approach is completely sound and has been tested for
several years.

Everything in the posting is - in fact - fully compatible SGML ISO8879. 

>Now if only there was real work addressing the verbosity issue...

After I had sent it off I realised I could have improved it by not
mentioning SGML at all and re-inventing SGML word-for-word under a
different name - say ZML . This would be reminiscent of a short story by
Borges where Pierre Menard rewrites the Quixote and ends up with a word for
word equivalent, but *because of the historical context* it would be a
completely different work. ZML could be believable as an approach because
history had moved on and *MLs are now acceptable. Leaving aside SGML's
history, ZML would be promotable as a solution.

HTML muddles content and presentation.

XML separates content from presentation (which it ships as stylesheets),
but muddles markup and content

ZML is the next step and separates markup from content. The markup is
shipped as DTDs or schemas.

If people want to minimise markup, then SGML has got the tools already.
There is a price to pay, namely robust delivery of hyperdocuments. If that
can be solved, then ZML is worth considering.

	P.

>


>
>
>Simon St.Laurent
>XML Elements of Style / XML: A Primer, 2nd Ed.
>Building XML Applications
>Inside XML DTDs: Scientific and Technical
>Cookies / Sharing Bandwidth
>http://www.simonstl.com
>
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• References:
  • (Fwd) Abbreviated Format for XML
    • From: Peter Murray-Rust <peter@u...>
  • Re: (Fwd) Abbreviated Format for XML
    • From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>

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