A server can negotiate the served content to minimize loss of meta
information. It doesn't yet make sense to serve XML directly, but trust me,
as soon as it does you'll get a solution that maintain the highest possible
encoding level.
>This should not really be a problem -- the link for the rendered HTML
>will be different (it will point to a CGI or servlet, usually), while
>there can be a direct link to the XML if someone wants to make it
>available.
No, the link to a HTML page generated from XML can be exactly the same as
if the page was a static file. It all depends on the flexibility of the
server and CGI. For example, our Mac web server companion "Interaction"
generates HTML pages on the fly from XML, but can easily be set up so that
any URL of a previous site can be served by the application.
-- Terje <Terje@in-progress.com> | Media Design in*Progress
C a s c a d e... a comprehensive Cascading Style Sheets editor for Mac
XPublish - for efficient website publishing with XML
Make your Web Site a Social Place with Interaction!
Check out our web tools at <http://interaction.in-progress.com>