"Open Interchange"

At 10:52 AM 5/29/97, Murata Makoto wrote (Re: Comments on XML Part 1 from
Japanese experts):
>Gavin Nicol writes:

>>>5. The private use areas
>>>
>>>(1) Proposal
>>>
>>>The private use areas of Unicode should not be used in XML.
>>
>>The private use area, and surrogates are critical for certain
>>applications.

What is "open interchange"?  If it means no prior coordination between sender
and receiver other than "to use XML", then the private use areas of Unicode
by definition cannot be used.  How would the receiver know what character
has been received?

Questions:  Is XML really intended only to be used for "open interchange"
as so defined?  Will the use of XML be prohibited when additional agreements
are needed?  How would this be enforced, and what gain would accrue from
enforcing it?

Dave Peterson
SGMLWorks!

davep@acm.org

Received on Monday, 2 June 1997 16:03:11 UTC