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From: Paul Prescod <papresco@t...> >Let me suggest this definition for semantic: a mapping from a syntactic >feature to an abstraction. I think people get confused between the "semantics" of the markup language and the "semantics" of the element [type]s and attributes being marked-up. I'll note the dictionary meaning of "semantic" as "relating to connotation of words". But in markup languages it has taken on a rather more specialized meaning, unfortunately: "relating to the connotation of (particular) instances of markup or their content". When people say "XML is not semantic-free" they are using "semantics" to include "the connotation of the delimiters" as well. Maybe it serves everyone right for using jargon. So I think this is what Tim is saying with: >> I think that >> "element", "element type", "notation", and so on are profoundly >> *syntactic* constructs. I think an element is a piece of an XML >> document that is bounded by tags; They are "syntactic" in relation to the document being marked-up, but they are "semantic" in relation to the XML spec. It is because people make the transition between the two contexts that the term "semantic" becomes confusing. Rick Jelliffe xml-dev: A list for W3C XML Developers. To post, mailto:xml-dev@i... Archived as: http://www.lists.ic.ac.uk/hypermail/xml-dev/ To (un)subscribe, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message; (un)subscribe xml-dev To subscribe to the digests, mailto:majordomo@i... the following message; subscribe xml-dev-digest List coordinator, Henry Rzepa (mailto:rzepa@i...)
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