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RE: Wikipedia on XML

• From: "Michael Kay" <mike@saxonica.com>
• To: "'Elliotte Rusty Harold'" <elharo@ibiblio.org>
• Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 22:57:49 +0100

> I'm 
> happy with the notion that XML *is* a *syntax*. I don't think 
> it's really a language, and I'm not sure what a metalanguage 
> is either.

A language for describing the syntax of another language?

But actually XML is more than a metalanguage for describing other languages;
it's also the class of languages that can be so described. 

Perhaps the notion of "metalanguage" or "language in which one can define
markup languages for documents" is over-emphasising the role of the DTD,
when one of the major contributions of XML is to make the DTD optional.

Perhaps: "XML is a set of rules defining how the structure of a document can
be represented by means of character-based markup inserted into the document
text." 

Regards,

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
http://twitter.com/michaelhkay 

• Follow-Ups:
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    • From: Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@ibiblio.org>
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• References:
  • Re: Wikipedia on XML
    • From: Tim Bray <Tim.Bray@Sun.COM>
  • Re: Wikipedia on XML
    • From: Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@ibiblio.org>
  • RE: Wikipedia on XML
    • From: "Michael Kay" <mike@saxonica.com>
  • Re: Wikipedia on XML
    • From: Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@ibiblio.org>