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Rick Jelliffe <rjelliffe@a...> wrote: > I think XML is not a notation for transferring facts. If you peel away enough semantic crud, you're always stuck with something that can't do what you want it to do. And by any token, no technology will do well in transferring "facts" as we can't even agree on what "facts" are, or what it means to "transfer" them. But I don't agree that XML is this simplistic thing that can't do what we want it to do. Of course it can. Just not currently in any agreeable form. Whether something is encoded in string or sound or small cuts on a leaf blown by the winds over the ocean, Wittgenstein's ghost will always make sure these kinds of discussions go on forever. That's job security right there. And XML isn't just strings, btw. For what is a "string"? There is semantic goodness even in the bare bones of the cursed child of SGML, any notation carries significance even if the interpreters can't agree on it. Getting back to the subject a bit, XML has a much higher semantic payload than JSON. I think that lies at the crux of this very discussion, both pro's and con's, and that semantic payload can very well carry higher level semantics that carries higher level semantics, it's just that the cake is so high and the interpreters so many and the epistemological conundrums so complex. That's why we most often return to data and numbers and some comfortable definition of data, wrapped in as little as possible to see if we can accomplish ... "something", and most often something very practical "something". This is why XML and JSON both are successful. And maybe why JSON is becoming the next "something" is because of the lack of burden, the lack of control, the lack of fiddly human meaning, and so let's just focus in of data. Plain, boring data. Because the other stuff is really hard. Cheers, Alex -- Information Alchemist, tone modulator, swords master thinkplot.org | linkedin.com/in/shelterit | sheltered-objections.blogspot.com
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