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Re: Defining an XML vocabulary: specify syntax, semantics, and

• From: "Fraser Goffin" <goffinf@g...>
• To: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@m...>, xml-dev@l...
• Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:23:08 +0100

To some extent the behavioural and semantic coupling are perhaps the
most useful parts of the vocabulary insofar as interop is concerned.
How do suggest that this information is conveyed beyond the basic
syntactical convention (i.e. an XML instance element called 'Book' in
the namespace 'urn:TreatThisAsALiteraryTextType' MUST have a specific
meaning and MUST be processed in a specific way).

For most custom vocabularies (I mean one that I might create between a
trading partner and myself) today this level of specification is
typically conveyed 'out of band' right, that is, there is nothing
beyond the naming convention to express it ?

Does the semantic web have anything to offer ?

Fraser.

On 09/04/2008, bryan rasmussen <rasmussen.bryan@g...> wrote:
> >  QUESTIONS
> >
> >  1. When defining an XML vocabulary, should behavioral information
> >  always be specified?
> no.
> >
> >  2. Does it make sense to define an XML vocabulary without specifying
> >  behavioral information?
> yes
> >  3. Are there two categories of XML vocabularies:
> >
> >  (a) XML vocabularies with behavioral instructions
> >  (b) XML vocabularies without behavioral instructions
> >
> yes. Although I think vocabularies without behavioral instructions are
> vocabularies that would normally be understood as purely data
> specifying in nature.
>
> >  As shown above, XSLT, XML Schema, and XHTML are XML vocabularies that
> >  fall in the first category.
> >
> >  Consider a "Book XML vocabulary."  Here's a sample document that
> >  illustrates the Book XML vocabulary:
> >
> >  <?xml version="1.0"?>
> >  <Book>
> >     <Title>The Wisdom of Crowds</Title>
> >     <Author>James Surowiecki</Author>
> >     <Date>2005</Date>
> >     <ISBN>0-385-72170-6</ISBN>
> >     <Publisher>Anchor Books</Publisher>
> >  </Book>
> >
> >  Suppose I write a specification for this XML vocabulary.  For each
> >  element I specify its contents and the intended usage.  But suppose
> >  that I don't instruct application developers on the (default and/or
> >  mandatory) behavior of each element.  How will I certify that the
> >  application is compliant?
>
>
> Because the general purpose of a Book vocabulary in all the examples
> I've seen is in the holding of book specific data. There are of course
> real world Book specifying vocabularies that are concerned with how a
> 'book' must behave, the behavior being specific to a particular type
> of media.
>
> Cheers,
> Bryan Rasmussen
>
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• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Defining an XML vocabulary: specify syntax, semantics, andBEHAVIOR?
    • From: noah_mendelsohn@u...

• References:
  • Defining an XML vocabulary: specify syntax, semantics, and BEHAVIOR?
    • From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@m...>
  • Re: Defining an XML vocabulary: specify syntax, semantics, and BEHAVIOR?
    • From: "bryan rasmussen" <rasmussen.bryan@g...>