Re: should CSS, HTML, etc. documents bear version information? (XMLVersioning-41?)

Dave Pawson wrote:

> Downstream processing of xml content requires validation and hence
> versioning to assure the processor that the content being worked
> is as expected.

Actually, no, it doesn't. Far more downstream processing of XML never 
bothers to validate the XML at all than does. Consider that no 
mainstream web browser ever validates anything nor does any XSLT 
processor. Clearly validation is not a prerequisite for getting useful 
work done.

> When archived XML is pulled from storage, how will it be processed
> without guesswork if it's lineage is unknown? By guessing from the root 
> element?

There's always guesswork in such a situation. Choosing the schema to 
apply is just one more guess. Of course most of the time you do know 
something, and you use that to inform your choices. However XML is 
designed such that it is possible to reverse engineer the XML's meaning 
even if the schema, the documentation, and indeed even the XML 
specification itself have been completely lost in the depths of time.

-- 
Elliotte Rusty Harold  elharo@metalab.unc.edu
Java I/O 2nd Edition Just Published!
http://www.cafeaulait.org/books/javaio2/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0596527500/ref=nosim/cafeaulaitA/

Received on Sunday, 1 April 2007 12:44:44 UTC