Re: Is XML text?

> As a general philosophy:
> http://www.w3.org/XML/1999/XML-in-10-points
> 3. XML is text, but isn't meant to be read

Don't only read the title... Here is the first half of that third point
on XML:

  `` Programs [...] store data on disk, using either a binary or text
  format. One advantage of a text format is that it allows people, if
  necessary, to look at the data without the program that produced it;
  in a pinch, you can read a text format with your favorite text editor.
  Text formats also allow developers to more easily debug applications.
  Like HTML, XML files are text files that people shouldn't have to
  read, but may when the need arises. ''

I think that citation is pretty clear. And XML has always been meant to
be human-readable. The following is taken from the XML Technical
Recommandation:

  `` The design goals for XML are:
  [...]
  6, XML documents should be human-legible and reasonably clear.
  [...] ``

So it definitely is text, and a well-formatted XML file is a perfect
candidate for merging! Sure, an OpenOffice.org content XML file isn't,
as it contain only few huge lines. But it's clearly an exception.

The following MIME types not in text/* should reasonably be considered
text:

- application/xml
- application/xml-dtd
- application/xml-external-parsed-entity
- application/*+xml

If the Subversion team don't want to change SVN behaviour on that point,
how is it possible to change it locally (I didn't find anything on it in
the book)?

Lately,
le Moine Fou

-- 
pierre.thierry@moine-fou.org
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