[XML-SIG] DOM: Multiple proxy problem

[Markus Fleck]

Fred L. Drake wrote:
> Given the general need
> to be able to handle well-formed XML in a non-destructive manner, I'd
> like to be able to write out the modified instance with the fewest
> possible changes; I'd really like "diff" output between the original
> and edited files to be minimal.

This must be what Tim Berners-Lee meant when he said (at WWW7):

   "You need to build a system that is futureproof; it's no good just
   making a modular system. You need to realize that your system is just
   going to be a module in some bigger system to come, and so you have
   to be part of something else, and it's a bit of a way of life."

I found this to be a very nice "feature" of XML, but I also think that
this implies that strict, formal DTDs shouldn't generally have the
importance that they have now. Requiring a DTD for each XML document
may solve the problem of "futureproof" file formats, mostly because
it can serve as some kind of documentation, but it still doesn't enable
a legacy XML application (using an older version of a DTD) to
non-destructively process data that has been created using a
more recent, but upwards-compatible version of that DTD.

But then, maybe the future isn't really important.

Yours,
Markus.

"Microsoft: The People who Brought the Y2K Bug into Software Titling"
:-)
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