El.pub
Analytic Issue Number 2El.pub
Analytic Issue Number 2
Top | Topic News | Topics | Search | Feedback
Contents: Introduction of .NET | XML joins the fun | Too many tag sets? Too much data? | ASP and peer-to-peer too | Does it all stand up?
It is interesting to see the pivotal place that is given to XML. Ever since I was first introduced to SGML in the '80s, I have been struck by the narrow view of its potential uses that have been taken by most of the SGML (and now XML) community. The focus on tagging as a means of processing documents for publication or display, seems to miss the point that tagging is a means of telling computers (or rather computer programmes) what the words mean.
At one time the AI fraternity believed that, by now, computers would understand words and indeed images as easily and to the depth that most people do. So that questions posed to computers in natural language could be similarly answered by processing existing text and synthesising a response. Tagging, or as Microsoft now call it Smart Tags, is an interim solution. Tags tell the computer what the words mean without having to explain it every time in a document primarily intended for human comprehension, for example that Microsoft is the name of a company.
Thus an important class of applications of tagging is for transferring information from one computer readable format such as an EDI message, to another such as a database record. Easy for people, difficult for a computer. Tags can be used as intelligent envelopes to messages to control their timing and routing, and subsequent reuse in other applications. (Incidentally both these examples are taken from work of Jean-Pierre Gaspart of ACSE, who is less inhibited than most SGML/ XML experts in applying tagging). .NET clearly envisages using XML in this way (referring explicitly to interoperating information from spreadsheets and databases).
An important consequence of using XML on a large scale in this way would be to extend interoperability of platforms. If the output of different applications was XML tagged rather than implicitly formatted, then interoperability both between different vendors and over time between versions would be made much easier. If the tagging embraced information on rights, and was used to enable decryption of encrypted information, the security of IPR could be managed more effectively.
Back to previous page Forward to next page Return to main index
Comments on the content, style and analysis are welcome and may be published; send them to: mailto:ketlux@compuserve.com
URL: download the WinWord document, from: http://www.elpub.org/analytic/analytic02.doc
| El.pub News |
A free email alerter of the latest news items and associated URLs. |
|
File
Downloads - Please note
|
| File downloads from the El.pub site are currently suspended - the links however have not been updated to reflect this. If you would like access to a particular download file - please email webmasters@elpub.org with a suitable request confirming a description of the file you wish to download. |
El.pub - Interactive
Electronic Publishing R & D News and Resources
We welcome feedback
and contributions to the information service, and proposals for subjects for
the news service (mail to: webmasters@elpub.org)
Edited by: Logical Events Limited - electronic marketing, search engine marketing, pay per click advertising, search engine optimisation, website optimisation consultants in London, UK. Visit our website at: www.logicalevents.org
Last up-dated: 16 February 2024
© 2024 Copyright and disclaimer El.pub and www.elpub.org are brand names owned by Logical Events Limited - no unauthorised use of them or the contents of this website is permitted without prior permission.
Copyright of this page: G. Stephenson, KET, September 2000