XML-Data: advantages over DTD syntax? (and some wishes)

[Peter Newcomb]

[Liam Quin <liamquin at interlog.com> on Fri, 3 Oct 1997 17:38:17 -0400 (EDT)]
> On Fri, 3 Oct 1997, Martin Bryan wrote:
>> At 19:02 01/10/97 +0200, Jarle Stabell wrote:
>>> I think the DTDs-as-instances also benefits new users, why should they have
>>> to learn two syntaxes instead of one?

>> Because DTD have special rules associated with them, such as those relating
>> to case sensitivity, keywords, names, etc. One advantage of having a
>> different syntax is that it is easier to remember that these rules apply
>> when you are using that syntaz, but do not apply when entering XML coded data.

> Charles said that different sorts of information should have different
> syntaxes, but in the document a chapter title has the same syntax as an
> author's name, a date, an image... and these things may all have different
> consumers.

Don't forget that full SGML also includes ways of customizing syntax
for particular applications: SHORTREF.  Instance syntax is good
because you always _can_ use it; that doesn't necessarily mean that
it's the best syntax to use for any given purpose.  Short references
at least attempt to fill the void between one-syntax-fits-all and
different-syntaxes-for-different-things.

-peter

--
Peter Newcomb                           TechnoTeacher, Inc.
peter at petes-house.rochester.ny.us       peter at techno.com
http://www.petes-house.rochester.ny.us  http://www.techno.com

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