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RE: [xml-dev] RE: description of the logical or semantic structure

From: "Michael Kay" <mike@--------.--->
To: "'ludger goeke'" <ludgergoeke@---.-->,<xml-dev@-----.---.--->
Date: 11/2/2005 12:52:00 PM
> <Person>
>    <Name>Peter Smith</Name>
>    <Age>56</Age>
> </Person>
> 
> 
> Does the markup describes  the content for example  "Peter Smith" in a
> semantic way, that means does it describes that 
> the content "Peter Smith" has the semantic of a name 

No, the tags in your markup are arbitrary strings. It's your description of
the markup "When I say Name, I mean personal name" that conveys the
semantics. There's arguably a default description "When I use a tag that's
an English word, I use it with the same meaning as that English word", but
that's still something that's external to the XML document itself. The tags
have no meaning without an external explanation of their intent and usage.
Without that explanation, the above XML fragment could mean "Launch an
attack on Cuba NOW!".

Michael Kay

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