ietf-xml-mime
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Re: The role of media types for XML content

2005-06-10 07:54:39

Hey,

On Fri, Jun 10, 2005 at 08:04:28AM +0900, MURATA Makoto wrote:
Mark,

(I do think that this topic belongs to the ietf-xml-mime ML.  I am 
ccing to the ietf-types but will not do so any more.)

Sounds good.

For those on ietf-xml-mime and not on ietf-types, my original
message can be found here;

http://eikenes.alvestrand.no/pipermail/ietf-types/2005-June/000817.html

I think that you have presented some requirements which are not
addressed by any of the existing mechanisms. 

But I believe the security problem is just one manifestation of the
layering problem inherrent in using intrinsic dispatch (of which XML
namespace dispatch in one kind); that an extrinsic dispatch mechanism,
like media types, cleanly separates the "what" - the raw data - from
the "how" - the semantics with which that data is to be interpreted.

I do not think that media types are good enough for multi-namespace 
documents and that W3C should develop something different.

I think media types are fine for multi-namespace documents.  I just
think that XML, by itself, doesn't provide a sufficiently rich framework
to address the root cause of the need for an explosion of media types
with these documents.

Consider RDF/XML documents, almost all of which are comprised of data
from several independent namespaces.  Yet a single media type,
application/rdf+xml, suffices for (almost[1]) all RDF/XML documents.

Although 
your example can be addressed by specialized media types, my example 
(schemas embedded within XHTML are referenced by XPointer) cannot.

Can you elaborate on that example please?  I don't think I've seen any
schemas embedded in XHTML before.

Cheers,

 [1] http://esw.w3.org/topic/RdfAndMediaTypes

Mark.
-- 
Mark Baker.  Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA.          http://www.markbaker.ca
Coactus; Web-inspired integration strategies   http://www.coactus.com