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Re: Use of "ANY"

• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Re: Use of "ANY"
• From: Mike Champion <mc@x...>
• Date: Thu, 01 Aug 2002 13:40:47 -0400
• In-reply-to: <F220Sqa1pAVxvWVZRwN0001b4a1@h...>

8/1/2002 11:23:59 AM, "I-Lin Kuo" <ikuoikuo@h...> wrote:

>
>
>  One major point raised in discussion is that there is a bias against the 
>use of "ANY". A DTD with "ANY" would be viewed as unfinished, and would be 
>an obstacle to having our DTD approved by an organization such as OASIS. 

In  my humble opinion, a DTD with "ANY" simply acknowledges the reality
that the world is complex, confusing, and ever-changing, and that
you have to deal with that fact.

You need to find the right tradeoff between rigid structure and
flexibility for your application.  Best practices aren't well enough
understood in this area for anyone's biases (including mine!) to 
be taken all that seriously.

Various web/xml technology weblogs are vigorously debating this general issue
(loose vs tight coupling .. in the context of web services, but I think the
issue is more general) as we speak.  You might want to follow
the debate to see if it gives you any insight.  See for example

http://radio.weblogs.com/0101679/stories/2002/03/15/copingWithChange.html
http://www.rassoc.com/gregr/weblog/2002/07/29.html#a50
http://radio.weblogs.com/0101679/

You have to scroll around, follow the various links, find the 
beginning of the threads, etc. to make sense of of all this, of course.

• References:
  • Use of "ANY"
    • From: "I-Lin Kuo" <ikuoikuo@h...>

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