InkML <trace> element; why require a BNF parser in addition to an XML parser?

• From: Steven Brown <swbrown@ucsd.edu>
• Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2004 20:34:31 -0700
• To: www-multimodal@w3.org
• Message-ID: <4105CD47.1000706@ucsd.edu>

The <trace> element in InkML seems to abandon XML in favor of a custom 
BNF parser, I assume to try and save space.  I was wondering, what is 
the rationale behind this decision?  Interoperability, ease of 
implementation, and extensibility seem to dwarf concerns about space 
efficiency in almost all widely-used protocols on the internet.  InkML 
as-is is like two different languages, and requires two different 
parsers.  Why not bite the bullet on space concerns and use XML in the 
<trace> element, and ditch things like 'a' to 'y' being interpreted as 
decimals?

Received on Monday, 26 July 2004 23:46:49 UTC