RE: SV: [xml-dev] XML=WAP? And DOA?

>-----Message d'origine-----
>De : Elliotte Rusty Harold [mailto:]
>Envoye : mardi 15 janvier 2002 16:49
>A : 
>Objet : Re: SV: [xml-dev] XML=WAP? And DOA?
>
>
>On Tuesday 15 January 2002 08:34 am, dehora wrote:
>>>  In the XML world, 'self describing' seems to mean, self-describing,
>>>  ie, XML data holds all the information needed to process and
>>>  understand it.
>
>
>That's too big a leap. Self describing means XML documents say 
>*something* about the data they contain. It does not mean they say 
>*everything* about the data they contain. It certainly does mean they 
>hold "all the information needed to process and understand it." 
>Something may not be everything but it is not nothing either. 
>Something can be quite useful.

The problem is that "self-description" is seldom understood that way by the
public. Educated people have a hard time to agree on the definition of
"self-description", so we should not throw such buzzwords at people who tend
to listen to the IT press and to the marketing people of various companies.

Regards,
Nicolas