Leonard, This is all true, but the key thing about XML is not its actual format (i.e., angle brackets, quotes, attributes, elements, etc.) but its *abstract* format. Take XQuery and XPath; with these languages you can query any data that can be cajoled into 'looking like' a hierarchical XML structure. It doesn't really have to live in a world of angle brackets, it just has to be represented in a hierarchical manner.
So there is no reason I couldn't use XPath to find the colour of the 53rd pixel on the 22nd row: /screen/pixels/row[22]/pixel[53]/@colour Or something or other like that! Anyway, the point is that the underlying data need not be stored in some memory-hungry, pointy-bracketed structure--it can still be the very efficient manner used for screen pixels. But the layer that provides access to the pixel (now a 'node' with properties represented by 'attributes') could be an XML-family layer. This provides a powerful layer of abstraction. The key thing is that XML and its related technologies have given us a convenient set of *abstract* tools (for querying, traversing, creating, etc.), as much as they have given us a convenient set of actual tools (Xerces, MSXML, Libxml, etc.). I hope that's not too philosophical for this time of the day. ;) Regards, Mark PS A couple of years ago, Steven Pemberton gave a controversial presentation at the XML Europe conference; in effect he argued that now we had 'the structure' we no longer needed 'the scaffolding'. In other words, XML as a concept helped us to get to the point where we had abstract query languages, abstract DOMs and so on, but now we have the abstract languages, we need concern ourselves less with the concrete form of the languages. For example, why not 'parse' free text into a 'DOM' and then query it using XPath? Mark Birbeck CEO x-port.net Ltd. e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] t: +44 (0) 20 7689 9232 w: http://www.formsPlayer.com/ Download our XForms processor from http://www.formsPlayer.com/ > -----Original Message----- > From: svg-developers@yahoogroups.com > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Leonard Rosenthol > Sent: 08 December 2005 23:14 > To: svg-developers@yahoogroups.com > Subject: RE: [svg-developers] Why is being in XML better? > (was Re: Adobe/Macromedia) > > > We like xml because it is The Great Panacea. What else do we need? > > > I agree that XML is a wonderful thing...I spend lots of > time in XML myself (and have for almost 10 years now). > > I do not, however, consider it "the great panacea". > There are many things for which it is NOT a good solution. > > For example: > * It doesn't make a good RASTER IMAGE data format. (could you > see a grammar with a value per pixel? ;) > * It doesn't make a good packaging solution. (which is why > ZIP is used in > conjunction) > > > > XML is kind of handy because of all the work that has been put into > > working out the APIs to work with it. > > Every language handles XML, and XML of some type is now the > > lingua-franqua for data transfer. > > > I agree that the APIs are wonderful and access from any > language is great - but I can also use a screwdriver for a > numerous purposes that it wasn't originally intended. > > My point is simple - use XML for what it was intended > to be...human (and computer) readable structured data. Don't > try to shoe horn everything into XML - it's not going to fit :(. > > > Leonard > > > > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor > --------------------~--> Most low income households are not > online. Help bridge the digital divide today! > http://us.click.yahoo.com/I258zB/QnQLAA/TtwFAA/1U_rlB/TM > -------------------------------------------------------------- > ------~-> > > ----- > To unsubscribe send a message to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -or- > visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/svg-developers and click > "edit my membership" > ---- > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Most low income households are not online. Help bridge the digital divide today! http://us.click.yahoo.com/I258zB/QnQLAA/TtwFAA/1U_rlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ----- To unsubscribe send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -or- visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/svg-developers and click "edit my membership" ---- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/svg-developers/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
