On Friday 01 June 2001 01:15, Anders Johansson wrote: [snip]
The problem with XML, at least as far as I can understand things, is that
binary data here would be valid XML. Perhaps someone with a deeper understanding of XML can correct me, but as I understand it, the actual interpreter of that data need only be named in the definition, not provided (I have to admit I haven't spent too much time researching this. Perhaps it shows). There is nothing in the XML spec that says it has to be platform independent, or open, or anything at all for that matter, as I understand things.
SGML and XML are great if you stick to the spec. In true Microsoft fasion, they have take the W3C standard and modified it so that it only works on MS products. SGML and XML, when based on the international standards are just a text file with your data, and standard tags defining the various chuncks of info. The DTD you apply to it defines how it looks on your screen. In simple terms, XML is just a refined subset of SGML designed initially for distributing SGML on the internet. It uses the same rule set and DTDs as SGML... just less of them. Until MS came along that is... they introduced a totally new bit called Schemas.... oooops... now you have an intermediate step that manipulates that data totally different again. C.