I am wondering what are some of the advantages when using a XML structure for the document, as opposed to just using plaintext (with annotations as well). Most of the formatting features in the rich text editor are achievable using just plain text with annotations.
It seems that a main advantage is the flexibility to allow arbitrarily nested structures, such as the one used in conversation model? Though not supported now, it is conceivable to add support for tables. Are there other advantages or examples that using just plaintext with annotations clearly cannot support? Separately, it seems Google Docs has managed to implement support for lots of word processing features, including tables and comments. It seems plausible that the wave document structure could in theory be extended to support those too?
