[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: Names As Types
So the bottom turtle is strictly syntax. XML has no application semantics. This we know. OTOH, if one *wants* to declare "the names label types" , and by extension, "and in the web domain, the namespace URI labels that typeset for any typesets on the web" isn't that a way of creating an application language, that is, the step beyond XML? That it is turtles all the way down isn't surprising, but at the bottom of a stack of technical turtles there is a person attempting to communicate. Is it wrong to order the turtles and give them explicit jobs? len From: Rick Jelliffe [mailto:ricko@a...] > On 8/24/05, Bullard, Claude L (Len) <len.bullard@i...> wrote: >> >> Abstractly, nodes is nodes and properties is properties, >> and we understand it, but it seems to confuse people >> who can't resist seeing element types as class >> declarations minus the methods. That of course sends >> the entity/attribute camp members up the tree, and >> so much for kumbayah. > > My point was more or less "XML is just labeled data". What meaning > you as a human, your simple code, your bleeding edge OWL-inferencer, > or your Sci-Fi Strong AI impute to those labels is not XML's business. > However high you stack these turtles, the only thing at the bottom of > the stack is the primitive notion of a "label". And the current XML stack fails in the label may not even apply to the data content, for example of subelements of mixed content! Take <p>It was a dark and <!-- JACK: CONTINUE EDITING FROM HERE--> <?typesetter newpage?><x>stormy night</x><y>fine night</y>.</p> We are used to the idea that the comment's connection to <p> is for a human to know, and that the PIs connection to the <p> is for some processor to know, but we don't have any way of saying whether the <x>'s data is part of the <p> or not: if <x> were <html:b> we might say yes, if <x> were <footnote> we might say no. So XML gives labelled ranges of text which nest, but perhaps except for leaf elements and child data content, it does not give any warrant that the label applies to all the text between the start and end tag! The most obvious symptom of the lack of support for rhetorical structures is that non-validated XML cannot even tell us which whitespace nodes are significant (the notorious DOM doubler!) Perhaps allowing xml:space=preserve|default|strip|collapse|trim would improve that particular problem, but the general one would remain. Cheers Rick Jelliffe ----------------------------------------------------------------- The xml-dev list is sponsored by XML.org <http://www.xml.org>, an initiative of OASIS <http://www.oasis-open.org> The list archives are at http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/ To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list use the subscription manager: <http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/index.php>
|
PURCHASE STYLUS STUDIO ONLINE TODAY!Purchasing Stylus Studio from our online shop is Easy, Secure and Value Priced! Download The World's Best XML IDE!Accelerate XML development with our award-winning XML IDE - Download a free trial today! Subscribe in XML format
|