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RE: Finally, what if namespaces == document types ?

• To: "'Simon St.Laurent'" <simonstl@s...>
• Subject: RE: Finally, what if namespaces == document types ?
• From: Nicolas LEHUEN <nicolas.lehuen@u...>
• Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 16:30:10 +0100
• Cc: "'xml-dev@l...'" <xml-dev@l...>

Whenever someone process a document XML representing an invoice (if that
ever happens), he is processing the data at the semantic level, not the
lexical level. Maybe my choice of the 'semantic' word is unfortunate. I'm
not saying that the program understand the data, of course. I just mean that
processing the data implies looking one level above the element level, and
to process patterns rather than just elements.

It is not insoluble, it is a pragmatic need with pragmatic solutions. We
need to build a document architecture with support for rendering plugins,
for example. There are solutions, we just need to agree on which ones to
generalise. Tools for the semantic levels are schemas, document types or
namespaces (depending on the scenario we opt for), stylesheets, directories
to associate all those tools to documents, etc.

Anyway, we do need clever people to implement tools that work at the lexical
level :).

Best regards,
Nicolas

>-----Message d'origine-----
>De : Simon St.Laurent [mailto:simonstl@s...]
>Envoyé : mardi 22 janvier 2002 17:20
>À : Nicolas LEHUEN
>Cc : 'xml-dev@l...'
>Objet : RE:  Finally, what if namespaces == document types ?
>
>
>On Tue, 2002-01-22 at 02:59, Nicolas LEHUEN wrote:
>> So let us say once for all that yes, there are applications 
>that process XML
>> at the lexical level, but that for these applications there is no big
>> problems about schemas, namespaces and al. There are such 
>problems for
>> applications that work at the semantical level, that's what 
>we are focusing
>> on in this series of threads.
>
>Go for it, and best of luck.  I consider semantic problems largely
>insoluble as general cases in any event, and doubt the results will be
>worth the effort, but if you're a braver soul than I am, have fun.
>
>I much prefer to lurk in the lexical basement, where I believe 
>there are
>identifiable problems that have useful solutions.  And heck, those
>solutions are even occasionally useful to people who think they're
>addressing semantic problems!
>
>-- 
>Simon St.Laurent
>Ring around the content, a pocket full of brackets
>Errors, errors, all fall down!
>http://simonstl.com
>

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