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Why would MS want to make XML break on UNIX, Perl, Python, etc ?

• To: <xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: Why would MS want to make XML break on UNIX, Perl, Python, etc ?
• From: "Rick Jelliffe" <ricko@a...>
• Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 15:54:02 +1100
• References: <5C39F806F9939046B4B1AFE652500A3A251A0B@R...>

From: "Michael Rys" <mrys@m...>
 
> They would all mean nothing in the context of the markup (ie they are
> exposed as a character information item with their Unicode code point)
> and display is left to the output device.

Sure, lets make XML unsuitable for use in UNIX pipes by allowing ^D.
And for Perl and Python text-processing programs that use standard in and 
expect EOF (^D or ^Z).

That really is pathetic. I sat next to the excellent J. Paoli at lunch at a 
conference last week, to thank him for the terrific MS help with some MSXML 4 
issues, and he stressed that MS was keen on following standards for XML: 
they were competing at the higher levels.

But it is clear that the other agenda is at work too, at least in certain
people at MS: let us adjust XML regardless that it wil break on the opposition's
operating system or tools. Let us justify this by saying that there are (supposedly)  more people using DBMS than using standard input for processing. Let us
embrace and extend. 

I have been rather surprised at people's comments that "text" is somehow an
abstract idea which we are free to fiddle with, rather than being a mode
hardcoded into operating systems in which certain control characters are used
for certain control functions (e.g. EOF in particular) and is utterly distinct in
practical and operation terms from binary processing.  XML is text.

Cheers
Rick Jelliffe
(Not speaking on behalf of employer)

 

 

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• References:
  • RE: Some comments on the 1.1 draft
    • From: "Michael Rys" <mrys@m...>

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