Re: Processing instructions

James Clark scripsit:

> > I think (a) here can be divided into (a1), the content of the document,
> > and (a2), the embedded metadata.  PIs (and the DOCTYPE tag constitute
> > the latter.  They are not in the data model but are a bag on the side.
> 
> I can see this more for PIs in the prolog (where the position of the PI is
> not really important). It feels much less natural for PIs in content, where
> the position is crucial.

Agreed.

> And even if you separate out (a2) from (a1), you still need a data model
> for it.  If you put a gun to my head, I could live with PIs with start-tag
> syntax in the prolog, and then provide a data model for the content (what
> we have now) and a data model for the metadata (ie a list of PIs).

I agree with that too.  There is no law that says the data model most be
in one piece, so to speak:  the LMNL data model has a sequence of atoms
(content characters are atoms, but there are other atoms too) and then
a list of ranges over those atoms.

> It doesn't make sense to me to have PIs in the prolog like xml-stylesheet
> and say that these are only for markup sensitive applications.

No, it doesn't.  But I wasn't saying that, I was saying they were
post-data-model decorations that can be added for XML compatibility
and are thrown away again (or reported as second-class citizens) when
the MicroXML is parsed.  But I like the idea above better.

> Having PIs in content being for markup sensitive applications (as in
> oXygen) makes sense, but I don't think a special syntax is necessary,
> because I think such applications could easily adapt to using comments with
> some sort of prefix (as in Javadoc and similar things).

I reluctantly agree.

-- 
Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.
        --Arthur C. Clarke, "The Nine Billion Names of God"
                John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org>

Received on Thursday, 6 September 2012 07:22:52 UTC