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Re: Re: maps

• To: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>,<xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: Re: Re: maps
• From: Bob Hutchison <hutch@x...>
• Date: Tue, 06 Aug 2002 00:42:51 -0400
• In-reply-to: <4.2.0.58.20020805080219.02331a70@p...>
• User-agent: Microsoft-Entourage/10.1.0.2006

On 8/5/02 8:04 AM, "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...> wrote:

> At 09:34 PM 8/4/2002 -0700, Micah Dubinko wrote:
>> An unpopular (but possible with current technology) answer is that the ° and
>> ' and " and even N|S|E|W stuff is window dressing, and that the actual value
>> is just a number:
>> 
>> <zoo>
>>   <name>Utica Zoo</name>
>>   <lat>75.25</lat>
>>   <long>43.08333333333333</long>
>> </zoo>
> 
> No, that's not an acceptable answer.  Part of the reason for using XML at
> all is the possibility and even probability that humans will be playing
> with these files directly and/or writing software, and preserving the
> idioms they use is critical.

I could have sworn that the idiom is actually more like:
  75°15'00" N 43°05'00" W

And I've seen:
  75 15 00N 43 05 00W

I'm pretty sure the idiom is *not*:
  <lat>75°15'00" N</lat><long>43°05'00" W</long>

So. I don't think your's is an acceptable answer.


> 
> Reductionism may be wonderful for computers, but it's not very useful for
> the rest of us. At least in theory, XML is supposed to provide a middle
> ground between human and machine-readable.

I'll pass on the 'reductionism' stuff.

There seems to me to be to be a difference of opinion of where the 'middle
ground' might be found. As far as I can see this 'middle ground' is likely
the place where the idiom stops and the markup begins.

Where *does* the idiom stop and markup begin, anyway? Is an invoice an
idiom? Is an integer an idiom? (1,000.00; 1.000,00; 1 000,00; etc) Dates?
Durations? Personal names? Addresses? Phone numbers?

How much of this is dealt with through rendering? Is <lat>75.25</lat> so bad
if we can render it as 75°15'00" N? Does this change the 'middle ground'
any?

How many idioms do we have to support anyway? Is XML supposed to achieve
some sort of interoperability you cannot achieve with, say, a gif? How? with
all these idioms?

I think this is an important question that people should attempt to answer,
and I don't think 'intuitively obvious' will form any part of a good answer.

While we are at it... What's the difference between what you are calling an
idiom and certain other people call a data type?

> 
> 
> Simon St.Laurent
> "Every day in every way I'm getting better and better." - Emile Coue
> 
> 
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• Follow-Ups:
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• References:
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    • From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>

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