1.2. Terminology

The terminology used to describe XML documents is defined in the body of this specification. The terms defined in the following list are used in building those definitions and in describing the actions of an XML processor:

Sometimes a specification looks a lot like a contract, because it spells out obligations and responsibilities. For example, if there's something that XML won't allow, it's not always enough to say "this is forbidden", so the spec often describes how an XML processor must react to a violation of the rule.