Why XML data typing is hard

[david at megginson.com]

Toby Speight writes:

 > Note that I'm considering the issues from the point of view of an
 > interchange format.  I've no objection to the use of the above in
 > an internal, single-language environment, as long as the elements
 > are transformed to a canonical form when passed to unsuspecting
 > readers.

I don't think that anyone's disagreeing that a standard lexical
interchange format can be useful; the question is where it should be
standardised: at the general XML level, or at the XML-based
specification level?  In other words, should there be a collection of
one-size-fits-all interchange formats that all XML-based specs have to
use, or should each spec be free to adapt its own?

Or to put this yet another way, why don't we standardise on ',' for
the decimal (and currency) separator in XML?

  <price currency="USD">4,55</price>

You could always render using '.' if the locale demanded it.


All the best,


David

-- 
David Megginson                 david at megginson.com
           http://www.megginson.com/

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