Re: What are Semantics? (Was: Serving generic XML)

Elliotte Rusty Harold wrote:
> 
> At 1:29 PM -0700 8/19/02, Kynn Bartlett wrote:
> 
> >If you make an arbitrary XML document, you cannot expect a browser to
> >determine that <headline> is supposed to be "a header" -- even if you
> >have visual presentation added on (via styles) which show that.
> 
> Ah, but I can expect exactly that. And if a browser fails to do so
> then I say this is a flawed browser, especially when it comes to
> accessibility. If humans can recognize certain visual layouts as
> headers, then I think we should teach our computers to recognize them
> too.

This is an AI-hard problem. Sometimes the heading is the largest text,
but not always. Sometimes it is at the top, but not always. Sometimes
the heading starts at the left, but not always. Sometimes the text of
the document wraps *around* the heading.

If you think it can be done, do it. You'll make millions on a "Word to
structured text converter." You'll also prove that the whole "separation
of presentation from structure" movement was wrong-headed. Why separate
them explicitly if the computer can do it after the fact? We can ship
around PDFs and Word documents as "structured text".
-- 
"When I walk on the floor for the final execution, I'll wear a denim 
suit. I'll walk in there like Willie Nelson, John Wayne, Will Smith 
-- Men in Black -- James Brown. Maybe do a Michael Jackson moonwalk."
Congressman James Traficant.

Received on Monday, 19 August 2002 17:30:39 UTC