What exactly is the role of XML in RAGS?
We regard XML as providing formats for people to exchange RAGS-compliant data sets in a way that is independent of any particular programming language. It is desirable that RAGS-compliant processing modules be able to import data from the XML representation and export their own structures to XML. However, it is not envisaged that the XML formats need reflect in detail the internal representations to be used by modules, and it is not envisaged that passing XML will be the way for RAGS modules to communicate efficiently. For our own processing modules we will implement more efficient communication mechanisms. It is not clear to what extent these will become part of the official RAGS architecture definition.
