On Mon, 17 Dec 2007 21:39:15 GMT, "Tom Perrett" <tomp@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
declaimed the following in soc.genealogy.computing:
>
> I thought that XML was a proprietary
No, it is quite open: eXtendable Markup Language... Just like SGML
and HTML (one difference from HTML is that common HTML did NOT require a
closing tag for all opening tags... HTML <br> was a standalone, in XML
one would have to write <br /> OR <br></br> -- XML allows for
contracting an open/close tag pair into a single tag with the /
preceding the >)
BUT: with regards to genealogy, one has the problem of either some
organization defining a "doctype" for use (having a "doctype" file
defining the construct of a valid XML file allows for validation of XML
files -- without using a custom validator; the validator read the
defining doctype file and uses IT to validate the construct of the XML
file), or one leaves it freely defined.
But... more... if one is going to use a validating XML parser, and a
validation doctype supplied by some organization, one has the same
problem as GEDCOM... It is quite likely that the doctype definition will
not sup****t all features of the most complex programs (typically those
of the event-based systems: the late Ultimate Family Tree and the living
The Master Genealogist) or will specify stuff not sup****ted by the
simpler programs (Family Tree Maker; from the GEDCOMs I've seen,
practically any data item that is not a pure BMDB or relation****p
becomes a generic "fact" or "note").
Unvalidated XML would allow each program to define the structures
that are best matches for its data... but will not be usable by other
programs... How is a program that expects:
<date>mm/dd/yyyy</date>
going to handle a file generated by a program that produces:
<date>
<year>yyyy</year>
<month>mm</month>
<day>dd</dd>
</date>
> standard (ie Microsoft), rather than
> a proper standard for all such as
> GEDCOM.
>
> So should not we avoid a proprietary
> standard?
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Tom [Tom Perrett] <tomp@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
--
Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber KD6MOG
wlfraed@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Bestiaria Sup****t Staff: web-asst@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
)
HTTP://www.bestiaria.com/
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