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Re: The subsetting has begun

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Re: The subsetting has begun
• From: Gavin Thomas Nicol <gtn@r...>
• Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 14:35:46 -0500
• In-reply-to: <15725CF6AFE2F34DB8A5B4770B7334EEEACFA5@h...>
• Organization: Red Bridge Interactive, Inc.
• References: <15725CF6AFE2F34DB8A5B4770B7334EEEACFA5@h...>
• User-agent: KMail/1.4.3

On Tuesday 25 February 2003 11:28 am, Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:
> You've said what you think is the right layer of the
> XML-SW suggestions.  Even given your comments here,
> do you think an XML-SW plus a matching infoset is
> worth pursuing in response to the requests for a
> subset, or is it up to each application to define
> such? 

I personally don't see the real need for a subset from an application-building 
perspective, but given the amount of consternation other people have, I would 
say there is probably some value in a syntax subset.

Assuming there is to be a subset, it should be just that, a subset. Remove 
anything that is not directly a syntax issue. That'd bring us right down to 
UnicodeAndAngleBrackets.

I have no problem with defining a canonical Infoset/data model, so long as it 
is not part of the syntax specification. In fact, I can easily imagine two: 
one for syntax-driven applications, and one for "structure" driven 
applications.

> If they do, should they create individualized
> processors to match their specifications, should they
> rely on the XML processsor provided in the library
> of framework objects provided by a vendor, or is this
> a mix and match challenge?

You'll have to excuse me here, because you're leaping from syntax and infosets 
to software components. That leap is a source of confusion IMHO.

> To me, it keeps coming back to what services can a
> programmer reasonably expect of an XML processor.

What is "an XML processor"? A parser? A bean serialization package? SNOBOL? If 
I have a toolkit that parses RTF, but which generates a SAX2 compliant event 
stream, is that "an XML processor"? Is JAXM defined in terms of the XML 
infoset?

FWIW. I think, apart from the obvious beauty and elegance of the XML syntax, 
XML itself offers little to the programmer. I mean, seriously, if you're 
developing a distributed application, do you care that the message is in XML, 
or rather, that you can use JAXM to get the work done? Why?

• References:
  • RE: The subsetting has begun
    • From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>

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