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

Re: heritage (was Re: SGML on the Web)

• To: michael.h.kay@n...
• Subject: Re: heritage (was Re: SGML on the Web)
• From: Tim Bray <tbray@t...>
• Date: Tue, 08 Oct 2002 07:30:16 -0700
• Cc: pdurusau@e..., 'Jeni Tennison' <jeni@j...>,"'W. E. Perry'" <wperry@f...>,'XML DEV' <xml-dev@l...>
• References: <000401c26ece$ff085650$6401a8c0@pcukmka>
• User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.1) Gecko/20020826

Michael Kay wrote:

> The problem is that it should have an underlying model, but it hasn't:

I couldn't disagree more.  Defining the syntax without the underlying 
data model *maximizes* interoperability because it reduces the number of 
shared assumptions.  The notion that two organizations will share the 
data model for a purchase order or a bill of materials is just silly, 
but they can often deal with each others' serialized output.  The 
evidence in the field is overwhelmingly on my side.

XML's lack of a data model is a deliberate, careful design decision, and 
the evidence of recent years is that it was correct.

> it only has a "overlying" model (the InfoSet) that is retrofitted to the
> syntax.

Correct.

>  If people had defined the model before
> defining the syntax we wouldn't be in this mess.

If we had tried to define the one true data model before defining XML, 
either (a) we'd still be in committee meetings or (b) XML would have 
been yet another big heavy API that would have fallen with a thud on the 
floor and been generally ignored. -Tim

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: heritage (was Re: SGML on the Web)
    • From: Patrick Durusau <pdurusau@e...>
  • Syntax (was Re: heritage)
    • From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@s...>
  • Re: heritage (was Re: SGML on the Web)
    • From: Sam Hunting <shunting@e...>

• References:
  • RE: heritage (was Re: SGML on the Web)
    • From: "Michael Kay" <michael.h.kay@n...>

• Prev by Date: Re: Non XML syntaxes
• Next by Date: Re: heritage (was Re: SGML on the Web)
• Previous by thread: RE: heritage (was Re: SGML on the Web)
• Next by thread: Re: heritage (was Re: SGML on the Web)
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread