DTD vs Schema

Peter Murray-Rust peter at ursus.demon.co.uk
Fri Sep 11 17:14:21 BST 1998


At 15:19 11/09/98 +0200, AMER, Nidal wrote:
>
>Unfortunately, as this seems not to be implemented, I have to build this
>logic in the code.
>
Remember that XML *has no code*. It mentions a processor (== parser). It
occasionally hints at other software (link processor). The DOM defines a
data model and interface. But in general the XML specs define the data, its
structure and very occasionally its semantics (i.e. what it should 'do').

I had expected that real software would start to be developed alongside the
specs. This is true for XML1.0 where we have a very large number of parsers
but very much less true for namespaces, XLink (which is over a year old),
schemas, etc. So yes, the message is that if you actually want XML to do
something you have to hack it yourself - don't sit around waiting for
others. In particular beware of NOTEs to the W3C where there is no evidence
of anyone doing any hacking. 

I think we will get there eventually - but I'm an optimist

	P.




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