is there an "xml-include"

[Robert A. (Bob) Morris]

Steve Shattuck writes:
 > Date:         Thu, 22 Nov 2001 10:41:55 +1100
 >[...]

 > 4) At the Sydney meeting I thought we agreed to restart this discussion with
 > specific examples based on real-life characters (in the biological sense).
 > This current thread would seem to be very much a continuation of the one
 > started 2 years ago: 80% focus on solutions (largely round XML syntax) and
 > 20% on specific problems (addressing business needs).  I fear we'll end up
 > the same place we were before.

Amen. More explicitly, what was posed was to provide "data challenges",
i.e. (as I understood) problems about characters that the poser feels
important to model. Implicit (as I understood) in that
discussion---and in almost all of this recent thread---is that a
particular representation (e.g. XML) is NOT what is initially desired.
If, indeed, my understandings were correct, and if a sufficiently
inclusive set of challenges were identified, what would then be
accomplished sets the stage exactly for the modeling Leigh
urges. Further, this complies with one of the admonitions in Rob
Atkinson's talk to first find out what you are trying to make a
standard about, i.e.:

 <not>
   <adage>XML is the answer. What is the question?</adage>
 </not>

Finally, I would paraphrase what I understood the subgroup meeting
arrived at:

     The first job is to identify with these data challenges the
     strengths and the limitations of what DELTA-motivated
     applications can accomplish, rather than throw out the experience
     of DELTA and start over.

Probably Gregor's meeting minutes will reveal whether that understanding
is correct and perhaps how it came to be.

--Bob Morris