Feeler for SML (Simple Markup Language)

[Robert La Quey]

At 05:48 AM 11/11/99 -0800, you wrote:
>Everyone,
>
>I have been thinking that there are applications out there that
>can benefit from using XML yet donot need all of its features.
>The Canonical XML spec goes quite a distance in cutting away
>some of the features, for different purpose, but I still feel
>that more can be cut away.  Rick Jelliffe's rather funny
>message along with some WebDAV papers I read over the weekend
>got my mind buzzing enough for me to share this idea with the
>rest of XML-DEV.
>
>What I have in mind is a subset of XML, I'll call it Simple
>(or Stupid) Markup Language (SML) for now, that simplifies XML
>down to the bare essentials.  Ideally, it should also be a
>subset of Canonical XML.  Here are some ideas:
>
>o No Attributes (ouch!)
>o No PI, Comments, Notations, or CDATA sections
>o No document type declaration
>o UTF-8 encoding only
>o No non-character entity references
>o No predefined character entities (I am iffy on this one)
>
>What do you guys think?  Please do not get caught up with
>the list I presented above because they are just ideas and
>subject to change later depending on your capacity to scream
>convincingly.  The key point to consider is whether there is
>a broad enough need for such a subset of XML.
>
>Best,

OK, enough lurking. I would like to pick this thread back up 
from the beginning and restart the discussion with a call for
opinions from another crowd who seem (to me) conspicuously missing
from the discussion. Are there any other lurkers in 
this group who have interest in the HDML->WML->XML=SML story?

i.e. XML from the point of view of a very small systems (embedded)
perspective. I think the SGML->XML crowd has pretty well stated
their reasons for disliking SML. My own opinion is this. SML will
happen (perhaps as WML, perhaps as many SMLs, a 1000 flowers bloom) 
as a de facto reality in arenas where fast product time to market 
and young engineers dominate the scene. 

As for lots of users. Ha! The largest cell phone community is already 
China with 25 Million users (UTF-8???). So the SML question they pose, 
while very different from the SGML world of woe and complexity, is perhaps 
of some importance. 

Is the overlap into the XML world worth pursuing or should the WML
world just go its own way? 

Comments? 

Bob La Quey
Bob La Quey

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