RE: Is XML a Language? (was RE: XSLT Architecture: Nex

> Hi Michael
> 
> Michael said:
> I thought a meta language was a kind of language.
> 
> Didier replies:
> Thinking about this subject this week end, I even more 
> strongly believe that a meta language like XML is not a 
> language per se but a structure used to create a language. 

You missed my point: a meta language is a language used to describe
other languages. As such, it is itself a language. Human languages,
computer languages, foreign languages, and meta languages are all kinds
of language, by definition.

Certainly, the DTD subset of XML is a meta language and is therefore a
language.

Without DTDs, I think it would indeed be difficult to argue that XML is
a language (or, for that matter, a meta language). It's then more of an
alphabet, a set of symbols from which languages can be constructed.

We are way off topic, and this kind of meta-meta discussion is far
better held on xml-dev, where people are used to deleting such
threads...

Michael Kay


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