Note

Date: Feb. 18, 1999
Link: http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-xml-infoset-req
Source Author or Organization: W3C

Excerpted from "Introduction": "The W3C's XML 1.0 Recommendation [XML] describes the physical representation of XML documents. We expect, however, that XML-based standards will usually be defined at a higher, logical level: in other words, standards will tend to refer to abstract objects like element or data rather than to the physical sequences of characters that match the XML 1.0 Recommendation's syntactic productions."

" The XML Information Set will describe these abstract XML objects and their properties. It will provide a common reference set that other specifications can use and extend to construct their underlying data models, and will help to ensure interoperability among the various XML-based specifications and among XML software tools in general."

" The XML Information Set will be purely descriptive: it will identify a common set of abstract XML information without mandating a single type of processing behaviour or a specific API for XML-based software."