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Re: Why the Infoset?

• From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>
• To: xml-dev@x...
• Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2000 16:36:21 -0400

At 01:26 PM 8/1/00 -0700, Eric Bohlman wrote:
>But those will
>be a minority of the applications that process XML.  The whole idea of the
>infoset is to enable parsers to insulate applications from such details.

I'd suggest that the 'whole idea of the Infoset' is effectively throwing
out the baby with the bathwater, by discarding far too many details.

Just watching people trying to extract DTD information through Xerces
often-broken DTD information over the last few months has made me wonder
why we're so excited about throwing so much away in processing.
Fortunately, Mark Wutka came along with his DTD parser, filling a gap we'd
left unfilled for far too long.

I'd suggest that the Infoset's designers build for a wider XML-using
audience than the particular one they have envisioned, and then describe a
subset and perhaps the processing that takes information from XML syntax to
parser output.  It'd be a lot more enlightening, if a lot more work.

Simon St.Laurent
XML Elements of Style / XML: A Primer, 2nd Ed.
http://www.simonstl.com - XML essays and books

• Follow-Ups:
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    • From: Aaron Skonnard <aarons@d...>

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  • Re: Why the Infoset?
    • From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>
  • Re: Why the Infoset?
    • From: Eric Bohlman <ebohlman@n...>

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