- From: Paul Prescod <papresco@calum.csclub.uwaterloo.ca>
- Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 21:08:10 -0400
- To: Andrew Layman <andrewl@microsoft.com>
- CC: w3c-sgml-wg@w3.org
Andrew Layman wrote:
> The whole point of XML is to have an
> infinitely-extensible, self-describing syntax that allows the structure
> of a document to be determined by a very simple, regular parser.
^^^^^^^^
What is a document? Is a "document"ary a document? If so, then should
XML have built-in support for encoding live video streams? No, I'm sure
you would agree that it is sufficient to be able to embed or point to
them in MPEG, AVI or whatever. Clearly, then, having built-in syntax to
completely support the complete range of "documents" in the universe is
not really our goal. Rather, we are interested in *describing* textual
documents and *embedding* others. It is not yet clear to me what the
technical benefits are of describing relational data rather than just
embedding or pointing to it as we would do with a graphic or movie. It
is convenient to have relational data in the same format but it is
hardly a show-stopper in a *markup* language.
Paul Prescod
Received on Monday, 19 May 1997 21:11:52 UTC