XSL/XML/XLL and VRML (was: Re: Conditional actions in XS

[Jim Amsden]

Tony Stewart wrote:

>>I would have thought that a good DTD doesn't do this at all. The DTD
>>should define the information content, leaving both style and (IMO)
>>behavior to be specified in a stylesheet that is tailored to this
>>specific usage of the information.

More religion:
Information content should be subordinate to behavior, not the other way
around. The DTD defines the information structure required to support
(unfortunately) implied behavior which establishes the meaning of that data in
the context in which it was defined. Attributes establish characteristics which
maintain state supporting variant behavior. Contents and links represent
associations supporting additional state, and enabling collaborations with
other elements required to support behavior, including behavior of the document
as a whole. Of course, none of this has anything to do with rendering unless
that's the subject of the DTD. Note that if a language is rich enough, it
doesn't have to change just because the subject area changes. This might be the
basis of the appeal of XSL and XML-Data which both use XML (more or less) to
describe their subject areas.

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