On Jul 3, 2005, at 4:18 AM, Maxime Petazzoni wrote:
+1. XML has the particularity to describe only the data, as opposed to
XHTML which stores data *and* structure information.
No, XML is a data structuring (mark-up) metalanguage. The only
difference between arbitrary XML and XHTML is that XHTML elements
have names that are backwards-compatible with HTML presentation
semantics, which provide an appropriate default presentation for
those browsers that do not support CSS. The field names are placed
in the class attribute instead of the element name. An XML or CSS
processing engine doesn't care which one is used -- they are
equally expressive and they are both XML.
XML semantics
allows us to represent mailing list data with mailing list data
semantics instead of web page semantics. Given mailing list semantics
in the problem space, you can then transform to any solution space
semantics using XSL.
There are no XML semantics -- it is just a structuring language with
a bit of hierarchical containment. An RDF/XML interface would
provide some added value, but that's even more of a mess.
According to me, this is the cleaner way of doing things (regarding
the module's source code).
Why don't you just make the elements table-driven?
Don't bother with the DTD -- just be sure it is well-formed.
Of course I will :) Writing a DTD may only be done when we'll have
settled on what we output (and how), and when I'll have time to do so
(or during a boring afternoon, something like this).
DTDs have no useful purpose in XML -- they are not extensible and
do not comprehend namespaces. If you really want a formalism, then
define a schema (RELAX-NG or XML Schema).
....Roy
