On 09/02/2007, at 4:14 PM, Geoff Pack wrote:
So <name>Joe Blogs</name> is meaningless with out a spec to tell me
that
'name' means a name, while <j79hfd98y28>[EMAIL PROTECTED]&*</j79hfd98y28> is
meaningful if a spec says so?
Absolutely correct. To a computer, any given string of characters
holds exactly the same amount of meaning as any other given string of
characters. It is the spec that defines how those characters should
be handled. The spec adds meaning to a system which inherently has none.
"What if I write spec that says simply: "The meanings of all my tags
names are the same as the meanings defined in the Standard Oxford
English Dictionary"? What if I claim my spec to be the English
language?"
You still have to clarify:
1. Which definition of any particular word are you using in the case
of homonyms, and words with multiple related meanings? when you make
an <orange> tag, are you referring to the color, or the fruit?
2. If you did make an <orange> tag, what would the contents of this
tag mean? The attributes?
3. If you converted your format to another format, say, vCard, can
you define a proceedure for doing so? Can a computer infer one?
The spec defines what a computer is doing with the data. XML is not a
magical file format, you still need to do the dirty work of teaching
the computer what to do with it, and what it means.
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