[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message]

Re: Must DTDs constrain order?

  • From: Eric van der Vlist <vdv@d...>
  • To: Tim Bray <tbray@t...>
  • Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2000 19:20:08 +0200

xml constrain
Tim Bray wrote:
> 
> At 09:55 AM 28/10/00 +0200, Eric van der Vlist wrote:
> >I begin to think that XML vocabularies should take example on XML itself
> >and that when designing a vocabulary one should start by defining the
> >infoset (the data model), a canonical form (a very strict syntax) before
> >defining one (or more if needed) "user XML syntax(es)" and canonization
> >algorithms with reference implementation(s).
> 
> Er, this might indeed be a good idea, but XML itself does not serve
> as a supporting example.  

Maybe as a supporting counter example then ;=) 

> The XML syntax was designed first.  The
> infoset came later.  

If the XML infoset had come before, we would probably have avoided some
incoherence between the XPath and DOM data models to name few.

(I don't want to sound critical or rewriting the XML history, I am just
trying to learn from this and from my own experience.)

> Some people are horrified at this, feeling that
> the infoset (or grove, depending on your religion) is The Real Thing
> and the syntax merely an ephemeral expression of it.  I disagree, but
> that horse's corpse lies about 100,000 messages back on the xml-dev
> trail, having been beaten to horse tartare. -T

Speaking about XML, it would have been difficult (or impossible) to
specify a data model (or infoset or grove) before the exposure to
applications such as DOM or XPath.

For less generic specifications, it might still be possible...

Eric
-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eric van der Vlist       Dyomedea                    http://dyomedea.com
http://xmlfr.org         http://4xt.org              http://ducotede.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------

PURCHASE STYLUS STUDIO ONLINE TODAY!

Purchasing Stylus Studio from our online shop is Easy, Secure and Value Priced!

Buy Stylus Studio Now

Download The World's Best XML IDE!

Accelerate XML development with our award-winning XML IDE - Download a free trial today!

Don't miss another message! Subscribe to this list today.
Email
First Name
Last Name
Company
Subscribe in XML format
RSS 2.0
Atom 0.3
 

Stylus Studio has published XML-DEV in RSS and ATOM formats, enabling users to easily subcribe to the list from their preferred news reader application.


Stylus Studio Sponsored Links are added links designed to provide related and additional information to the visitors of this website. they were not included by the author in the initial post. To view the content without the Sponsor Links please click here.

Site Map | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Trademarks
Free Stylus Studio XML Training:
W3C Member
Stylus Studio® and DataDirect XQuery ™are products from DataDirect Technologies, is a registered trademark of Progress Software Corporation, in the U.S. and other countries. © 2004-2013 All Rights Reserved.