Are signatures beyond the scope of XML?

[Bill la Forge]

I've noticed some mention of XML for electronic commerce (inter at ctive
week, 2/16/98) and as an alternative to EDI (XML A Primer by Simon St. 
Laurent, p193).

I think it would be great if we could do things like XML certificates, as
well. But many of these things require signing. Say, something like this:

<SIGNATURE ALGORITHM="PGP" SIGNED="JKLJKLJKLJKJKLJKLJKLJKLJKL==">the thing signed</SIGNATURE>

But "the thing signed" may itself contain XML. Is this asking too much of
an XML application, that it both process the contents of the signature
element, while providing access to the byte array of the contents for
signature verification?

Thanks!

Bill la Forge
Sr. Research Engineer
The Open Group
http://www.camb.opengroup.org/~laforge/


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