Re: An XML document is an information resource (series of octets) ... yes?

Norm Tovey-Walsh <[email protected]> Tue, 20 Jun 2023 13:38:20 +0100
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> Two More Questions:
>
> 1. What is an "information resource"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTPRange-14 enters the room.

> 2. The parenthetical remark seems to imply that an information
> resource is a "series of octets". Is an information resource a series
> of octets?

I think a series of octets is inadquate by itself and the text you
quoted doesn=E2=80=99t presume a series of octets *by itself* is a resource=
. It
explicitly includes =E2=80=9Cdescribed by the application/json media type=
=E2=80=9D.

That=E2=80=99s a pretty common definition, in my experience: a sequence of
octets with a MIME type. If the MIME type describes a format realized as
a sequence of characters, you need an encoding as well, or some way to
get the encoding.

To see how this works in practice, consider how this sequence of octets
is interpreted with different MIME types:

0000000      743c    6261    656c    3c3e    7274    3c3e    6474    483e
0000020      6c65    6f6c    2f3c    6474    3c3e    742f    6261    656c
0000040      0a3e=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=
=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=
=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20=20
0000042

For convenience, interpreted as text/plain, that=E2=80=99s

<table><tr><td>Hello</td></table>

Interpreted as text/html, that=E2=80=99s

<html><head></head><body><table><tbody><tr><td>Hello</td></tr></tbody></tab=
le></body></html>

Interpreted as application/xml, that=E2=80=99s not well formed. So there=E2=
=80=99s some
sense in which it is not an XML information resource.

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

=2D-
Norm Tovey-Walsh <[email protected]>
https://norm.tovey-walsh.com/

> Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they
> go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one
> by one.--Charles Mackay

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