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Re: Imbue XML instances with semantics

• From: "Liam R. E. Quin" <liam@w3.org>
• To: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>, "xml-dev@l..." <xml-dev@l...>
• Date: Fri, 23 Dec 2016 19:02:50 -0500

On Fri, 2016-12-23 at 20:53 +0000, Costello, Roger L. wrote:
[...]
> Lesson Learned: XML has no semantics. When we define operators on the
> XML and imbue specific behaviors on the operators, only then we may
> informally treat the XML as having semantics.

To say this is to say that English text has no semantics, since there's
no inherent meaning in individual letters of our alphabet.

It's perhaps better to say that XML is a vehicule for representing and
transmitting information, and that such information is opererated on
externally. Information theory doesn't let us send a message that's
free of any information and then derive information from it.

Liam


-- 
Liam R. E. Quin <liam@w3.org>
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

• References:
  • Imbue XML instances with semantics
    • From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>