Per Bothner scripsit:

> Let me summarize what I think you're saying: This SRFI should be purely
> about the reader extension: The syntax, and how it is translated at
> read-time to normal S-expressions.  The semantics of those S-expressions
> (i.e. how they are actually evaluated) should not be specified, but
> could be a separate SRFI.

That is the main thrust of what I am saying, yes.  But even if you choose
to keep the (partial) semantics in the draft, I do strongly believe
that they need to be carefully separated from the syntax.  The current
discussion flips between its three goals in a very confusing way.
Of course, putting the semantics into a separate SRFI is an extreme
version of this separation.

> First, I believe the semantics provide a rationale for the syntax and
> the translation, in providing at least one "natural" implementation
> that supports fairly complete XML semantics within Scheme programs.

My view is that XML is self-justifying except among people who detest it,
who probably cannot be convinced of its merit by any argument available
to us.

> Second, I have tried to keep the semantics fairly flexible, supporting
> different embeddings and implementation strategies.  Are there valuable
> semantics that are inconsistent with the draft?

I don't know, but (as I have been posting elsewhere today), I believe
that there might be, and an implementation of this SRFI should not
necessarily inhibit them.  One of the minor reasons that I prefer Scheme
to Common Lisp is that Scheme provides an explicit S-expression syntax
for quasiquotation, which means that its parts can be repurposed.
For example, the Scheme48 and Chicken interpreters express commands as
,foo = (unquote foo).  This could not be done in Common Lisp, where comma
not within a backquote is a (lexical) syntax error in all implementations
known to me.

> One possible issue is that I've focused on XML constructors in Scheme
> *programs*, and not as raw data in files.  Standalone data use isn't
> precluded by the SRFI, but such usage might not be interested in
> the semantics.

Indeed.  And of course what can appear in a data file can also appear in
a quoted object inside a program, to be dissected in some non-standard
way by that program.

--
Do I contradict myself?                         John Cowan
Very well then, I contradict myself.            xxxxxx@ccil.org
I am large, I contain multitudes.               http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
        --Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass