Re: Action item on syntax-based interoperability

On Wednesday, October 22, 2003, at 08:59  AM, Tyler Close wrote:

> Is it really the absence of a data model that is the source of
> success? I think it is the presence of a friendly, textual surface
> syntax that is the source of success. If I'm wrong, then defining
> a data model for XML, like XML Infoset, reduces the
> interoperability of XML.

I think the infoset made life easier for spec writers, but added 
exactly nothing to the interoperability of XML, which happens at the 
syntax level.
>
> I think the message should be "Syntax is important", not "Data
> models are bad". A system defined in terms of a data model
> represented in a friendly, textual surface syntax, could have the
> same interoperability properties as the WWW.
>
Syntax is *essential*, not important.  I entirely disagree with the 
assertion in the last sentence and have observed no existence proofs. 
-Tim