Re: [EXI LC comment] data type identifier in a document

Dear Wataru,

Thank you for your feedback.

> EXI documents do not include data type identifier of each value. Thus
> all data types other than string can be used only in schema-informed
> documents. Is it impossible to encode attribute values as integer
> without schema? Fast Infoset document has data type identifier of each
> values and I think it's a good approach.

EXI allows one to provide the same typing information as XML. In XML
documents you can provide hints about the type by using the attribute
xsi:type. EXI makes use of this information in the same fashion.

EXI being type-aware with attributes and any other type other than the
built-in types provided by XML Schema requires external information
such as an XML schema document.
For a more detailed explanation please take a look at our response to
a related question (see [1]).

Hope this answers your question and explains our rationale

Regards,

-- Daniel

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-exi-comments/2009Jan/0000.html