RE: [xml-dev] Syntax versus Semantics (was: "vocabulary constraints" and other constraints (was: Re: [xml-dev] RE: Difference between "normalize" and "canonicalize"?))

Is it 1998 again?

http://mailman.ic.ac.uk/pipermail/xml-dev/1998-June/004487.html


Computers only operate using symbols, therefore documents only contain
"syntax". The "semantics" is the metamodel behind the surface syntax, and
the alogrithms.

So if you did want a definition of semantics, you might use the idea of
syntax and algorithms that applies to domain-specific metamodels rather
than semantics and syntax that applies either immediate "surface" syntax
(e.g. XPaths) or to generic metamodels (e.g. XSD components.)

Cheers
Rick Jelliffe