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RE: James Clark: XML versus the Web

• From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>
• To: "xml-dev@lists.xml.org" <xml-dev@lists.xml.org>
• Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2010 10:02:42 -0500

Hi Folks,

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ISSUE 
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Quantitatively compare the complexity of SGML versus JSON versus (XML + XML Namespaces + XML Infoset + XML Base + xml:id + XML Schema Part1 + XML Schema Part 2)

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METRICS
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Assume that the complexity of a technology can be (crudely) measured using the length of its specification--the longer the specification, the more functionality that must be implemented and therefore the greater the complexity.

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MEASUREMENTS
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SGML: 150 pages

JSON: 10 pages

XML: 60 pages

XML Namespaces: 14 pages

XML Infoset: 17 pages

XML Base: 9 pages

xml:id: 11 pages

XML Schema Part 1: 196 pages

XML Schema Part 2: 150 pages

XML + XML Namespaces + XML Infoset + XML Base + xml:id + XML Schema Part1 + XML Schema Part 2 = 456 pages

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ANALYSIS
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The XML set of technologies is roughly 3 times more complex than SGML and roughly 45 times more complex than JSON.

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REFERENCES
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"The official SGML specification is over 150 very technical pages." http://docstore.mik.ua/orelly/xml/xmlnut/ch01_04.htm  

JSON RFC: http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4627.txt  

XML: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/ 

XML Namespace: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/ 

XML Infoset: http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-infoset/ 

XML Base: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlbase/ 

xml:id: http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-id/ 

XML Schema Part 1: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-1/ 

XML Schema Part 2: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/ 


/Roger

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: RE: James Clark: XML versus the Web
    • From: Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com>

• References:
  • James Clark: XML versus the Web
    • From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>