SML Status Report

[Sean McGrath]

[Lisa Rein]
>if anyone else responds to this email, and, if it, in fact does lead to
>a thread on the xml-dev list about SML, I can't be held responsible for
>my actions...:-)
>
>lisa
>
>(hint: those who care about sml can go check on the sml-dev list, any
>time they want right? -- just checking, thanks.)
>

Oh, you can be held responsible for your actions ok! You
are laying flame bait with this rude, condescending,
dismissive e-mail. You think you can just walk away from
it giggling? Get a grip Lisa!

Don? thanks for the summary. Lisa? Please send
any consequential inflammable material directly
to me rather than to the list.

regards,
Sean McGrath

>Don Park wrote:
>> 
>> Quite a few people have been asking me about the status
>> of SML.  This is a status report on the SML effort and
>> the group behind it, the SML-DEV.
>> 
>> So far, we achieved tentative concensus on following
>> issues:
>> 
>>   SML is a strict subset of XML
>>   SML supports:
>>     UTF-8 and UTF-16 only.
>>     empty elements.
>>     numeric character entities.
>>     predefined character entities.
>>   SML does not support:
>>     DTD
>>     CDATA sections
>>     XML and text declarations
>>     Processing Instructions
>>     Comments
>>     Entities (except character entities)
>>   SML attribute names must not conflict with
>>     child element names.
>> 
>> We are currently trying to formulate an information
>> model for SML before moving forward to tackle tougher
>> issues such as attribute, mixed content, and namespace
>> support.  I think SML represents an unique opportunity
>> to do things right in the right order.  In contrast,
>> XML information model is still being worked on, two
>> years after XML syntax.
>> 
>> There have been some wildly innovative ideas that came
>> up in SML information model threads: attributed grammars,
>> colored nodes, rhythmic encoding, unisyntax data model,
>> and even some Grove model variations.  Beauty of some of
>> these ideas can be appreciated immediately.  For example,
>> following is a rather concise notation for our version of
>> the Groves model:
>> 
>>   node := character | map(string,list(node))
>> 
>> other versions that followed removes the distinction
>> between a character and a map, and then adds context:
>> 
>>   node = map(string, list(node))
>>   node = tuple(parent, map(string, list(node)))
>> 
>> Some ideas were less apparent but fantastic nonetheless.
>> For example, the 'colored node' proposal starts with SML
>> having just black and white  nodes (name and value),
>> then treats CSML (Colored-SML), CXML (Common-XML), XML,
>> XHTML, and arbitrary markup languages as SML with nodes
>> colored differently (i.e. attribute, PI, comment, etc.).
>> 'colors' differ from 'types' in that the colors are
>> not 'in' the model but provided by other means such
>> as parsers or 'painters'.  Leigh Dodds prepared an example
>> titled "SML Color Book" which shows how the 'painting' is
>> done.
>> 
>>   http://www.bath.ac.uk/~ccslrd/sml/coloringbook2.html
>> 
>> While these ideas might seem a bit 'off-the-ground' to you,
>> most members of SML-DEV are as practical as they come, and
>> plan to use SML and related technologies to build commercial
>> products.  E-commerce, B2B or B2C data exchange in particular,
>> seems to be the most common application SML-DEV members are
>> interested in using SML in.  Just as the design of XML was
>> influenced by the primary interests of its inventors,
>> publishing documents on the web, SML's design will likely be
>> heavily influenced by our interests in e-commerce and data
>> exchange.  After all, SML will be our child.
>> 
>> Best,
>> 
>> Don Park    -   mailto:donpark at docuverse.com
>> Docuverse   -   http://www.docuverse.com
>> 
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>
>xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev at ic.ac.uk
>Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/ and on
CD-ROM/ISBN 981-02-3594-1
>To unsubscribe, mailto:majordomo at ic.ac.uk the following message;
>unsubscribe xml-dev
>To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo at ic.ac.uk the following message;
>subscribe xml-dev-digest
>List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa at ic.ac.uk)
>
>
>

xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev at ic.ac.uk
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To unsubscribe, mailto:majordomo at ic.ac.uk the following message;
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