[xquery-talk] Text Markup vs Data Serialization - Was RE: min max and mix

[Michael Kay]

> 
> My opinion is that the compromises made to allow this "Dual Use", while not perfect and not quite equal in each use case, are really amazing.
> I cannot think of any other markup or serialization format which does better at accommodating both use cases as equal citizens reasonably well.

XML does a good job at this but it leaves some well-known problems. I tried to do better in FtanML (Balisage 2013). For example FtanML:

* allows element and attribute values that are typed as integers, booleans, or sequences of anything without resorting to a schema

   for example married=true, height=1.86, children=["John", "Mary"]

* distinguishes whitespace that is present for readability purposes from whitespace that's part of the content

* eliminates the artificial distinction between elements and attributes, allowing the same values to be held in both

Michael Kay
Saxonica