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Re: Xml is _not_ selfdescribing


Re:  Xml is _not_ selfdescribing
At 02:52 PM 1/15/2002 +0100, Jens Jakob Andersen, PDI wrote:
>Hello all
>
>I think that it is fair to conclude now, that XML is _not_ any more 
>selfdescribing than e.g. CSV files.
>
>Sometimes I see that we move very close to becoming guilty of "Xtreme 
>Marketing Language (XML)".

Actually, Jon Bosak has always been careful to say that XML does not define 
the meaning of the data. In the early days, he used to show an audience a 
DTD written in Japanese and point out that the meaning of the structures it 
described really aren't obvious to those who do not speak Japanese. There 
are too many people in the XML world who read Japanese, so Ugaritic might 
be a better choice.

The fact that meaningful names can be used in DTDs and Schemas means that 
human beings often do have an idea what a DTD describes, but that means 
that natural language names convey meaning, not that XML conveys meaning. 
Human beins have a burning need to ascribe meaning to just about anything, 
which is why we are able to read tea leaves, play slot machines, and trade 
commodities.

An exercise for the reader: if an RDF Schema is written in Ugaritic, is it 
any more "meaningful" than an XML Schema that describes the same data? 
Please state the definition of "meaning" you are using, and how you 
determine if this kind of meaning is present....

Jonathan


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