Processing Model - applicability to other domains

Regarding the 05 April 2004 draft of the XML Processing Model 
Requirements: why is this effort limited to XML?

I don't see any requirements here that rule out other types of input 
and output; indeed, there are scenarios where it's easy to imagine 
others (e.g., multipart MIME, gzip, plain text, pdf, png, etc.). Basing 
the format's input and output on an XML abstraction seems needlessly 
restrictive.

Also, since it's likely we're going to see at least one alternate 
representation of XML [1], there isn't much gained in terms of 
simplicity; by specifying the input and output at the data model level, 
you don't get much in the way of constraint on the syntactic form of 
the input.

There are also some fascinating potential tie-ins with HTTP's 
processing model [2].

If there's a concern about implementation complexity for the purposes 
of demonstrating interoperability, the CR requirements could be defined 
only over a subset of formats that happen to be XML-based.

As a result, I'd suggest changing the name of this document to "Web 
Document Processing Model Requirements," and adjusting the content 
accordingly. Doing so would be much more in line with the W3C's mission 
- to lead the Web (and not just XML) to its full potential.

1. http://www.w3.org/2000/xp/Group/3/06/Attachments/XOP.html
2. http://www2002.org/CDROM/refereed/444/

--
Mark Nottingham     http://www.mnot.net/

Received on Tuesday, 27 April 2004 16:37:59 UTC