RE: Opaque data, XML, and SOAP

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Elliotte Rusty Harold [mailto:elharo@metalab.unc.edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 10:09 AM
> To: xml-dist-app@w3.org
> 
> 
> At 12:13 PM -0500 3/11/03, Marc Hadley wrote:
> >+1. IMO we need a standard mechanism for 'abstractly including'
> >binary data in an infoset. By 'abstractly including' I mean that the
> >data is included in an abstract sense rather than included literally
> >as CIIs. 'Binary smart' processing can take account of the abstract
> >inclusion, existing processing can ignore it.
> 
> 
> I don't think we need that. In fact, I think we don't need any way to
> include information in the Infoset that cannot actually be part of a
> genuine XML document, and I find such attempts damaging and hostile
> to XML.

Peace. No hostility meant here. Everything that's been discussed has a
pure text-based representation that is XML 1.0-friendly. 
 
> SOAP may have a need to include binary data in its processing. If so,
> then it needs to build on top of something other than XML and the XML
> Infoset. 

We've tried to be clear that the two are distinct. If people want to put
messages on the wire using pure XML 1.0, XML 1.0 + multipart MIME or
something more exotic, more power to them. Our position is that
independent of the concrete transfer syntax, the abstract data model for
a message should be the SOAP envelope EII. No more, no less.

DB

Received on Tuesday, 11 March 2003 17:25:41 UTC