Re: The role of media types for XML content

[Mark Baker <distobj@xxxxxxx>]

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