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[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: XML Extensibility / XML Schemas
 In a message dated 24/08/00 14:19:57 GMT Daylight Time, sbpxhtml@y... writes: Hi Sean, You raise a number of points which interest me. << Have you noticed that when you give XML a DTD, it stops becoming extensible? >> Well, interestingly enough, you could argue that XML is never extensible. If it can have an infinite number of different elements then it is not possible to extend it at all. It is only possible to constrain it. << We seem to forget that XML isn't really a language - it's a meta-language; a means of setting up (sometimes proprietary) new languages. >> I think it is important that we don't forget that XML should really be called a meta-language and that XMML is a more accurate (less inaccurate?) acronym than XML. It is important not least because if the fact that XML/XMML is a metalanguage is put up front it makes newcomers realise pretty fast that they are dealing with something out of the orbit of their likely past experience. That awareness would hopefully breed a healthy alertness to some of the subtleties of XML. Very few people have previous familiarity with a "language without words", such as XMML really is. << Which all seems to favour some kind of xml+ MIME type for XML applications; to show that these new languages are XML based, but have a DTD. Of course, the saving grace may be XML Schemas; these will allow XML to be 'valid' documents, but ones that are still extensible. Problem: I wonder if it's possible to transform both XSLT & XML Schemas with XSLT? >> Well, I think that in principle both are possible. It isn't so immediately obvious what they would be used for - in terms of some "killer app". At least it isn't to me. I raised the idea of using XSLT to e.g. create new XSLT transformation sheets in a discussion recently but the feedback I had at that time was that it was a gimmick. To be honest, I still don't see a "killer app" arising from that, but perhaps in a couple of years we will look at n-tier XSLT transformations with as much equanimity as Java server people view such things in J2EE. By some bizarre coincidence, the potential of using XSLT to manipulate XML Schemas was something I was in discussion about earlier today. Until XML Schema is stable then it is likely that usage will be limited to experimentation but it certainly is an intriguing possibility. I am not sure if my brain is elastic enough to accomodate all the implications though. :) << - Probably yes because they are valid XML, but can you imagine the carnage/innovation this could cause... >> Need there be more "carnage" than with n-tier web application servers? Sure, there needs to be an adjustment of perspective on what the Extensible Markup MetaLanguage is, but isn't that what life-long learning is about? <grin/> Andrew Watt 
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