If I'm on the same track, then the "spec" you're speaking of is an xml schema (.xsd) file which takes care of defining your xml elements. etc?
Kind regards, Frank M. Palinkas Microsoft M.V.P. - Windows Help M.C.P., M.C.T., M.C.S.E., M.C.D.B.A., A+ Senior Technical Communicator Web Standards & Accessibility Designer -------------------------------------------- website: http://frank.helpware.net email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------------------------- Member: Society for Technical Communications (S.T.C.) Guild of Accessible Web Designers (G.A.W.D.S.) Web Standards Group (W.S.G.) -------------------------------------------- super group trading ltd. Sandhurst, Gauteng, South Africa website: http://www.supergroup.co.za -------------------------------------------- Work: +27 011 523 4931 Home: +27 011 455 5287 Fax: +27 011 455 3112 Mobile: +27 074 109 1908 -------------------------------------------- ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Breton Slivka Sent: Friday, 09 February, 2007 9:18 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [WSG] is html done? [was semantics] 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. ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ******************************************************************* ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
