to try to summerize some.

my guess is that:
I think that it will be cool to have a data container format with comprable 
flexibility to xml (most typically fall short here);
I was likely overemphasizing binary xml originally, I am now thinking this 
is more a distraction than anything practical.

the description is thus more like "xml-like binary container format" than 
"binary xml", oh well...


thoughts now drift to other possible schemes, eg:
dropping the tag attribute disctinction and making all tags effectively both 
compound and primitive globs (or either compond or primitive).
another mystery is whether to allow compound attributes.

however, with this the impulse then becomes to take the most 
streightforwards approach, leading to a simple inflexible plain tree again 
(eg: the attributes would become the nodes and no longer a form of metadata, 
and there is no longer a really safe and general way to insert metadata 
without possibly effecting content).

I guess an aspect of an xml like structure is that it is slightly awkward 
and limited in such a way as to promote flexible design over a more direct 
and elegant but less flexible design (good examples seem elusive though).

I think it may be similar to something I have noticed with programming 
languages and similar. a resistance to being overly clean can lead to a 
flexible design, but too much leads to an inflexible mess. often, with the 
inflexible mess it seems like, at the core, someone was kludging over some 
central design.
(freedom is gained on the basis of adherence to rules).

an xml-like approach seems most sensible.
ntlalv: namespace, tag, length, attributes, length, value.
better than tlv?...
what about just ntlv?...

it seems fragile and tweaking too much with the nature of attributes causes 
things to collapse.
(semantics and structure seem conected in a weird way...).

similar goes with the coding and the api, why am I taking so long?...
the nature of the api is odd, apart from a context, I am not using much 
other data. it forms itself as an odd state machine...


ok, my point once again seems lost.