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> -----Original Message----- > From: ht@i... [mailto:ht@i...] On Behalf Of > Henry S. Thompson > Sent: Sunday, January 05, 2003 23:05 > To: Alessandro Triglia > Cc: [XML-DEV] > Subject: Re: Questions on XML Schema "all" and > RELAX NG "interleave" > > > "Alessandro Triglia" <sandro@m...> writes: > > > One concrete question I might ask is, If I have an "all" group of 3 > > elements in a schema, and an instance contains the 3 > elements in some > > order (any order being valid), how much does it matter if a tool > > re-orders the elements on reception, and presents them to > the user in a > > fixed order? Could I justify such a behavior of the tool by saying > > that the order in an "all" group is not important? What are the > > chances that the order *is* important and the user > absolutely wants it > > to be preserved? > > The chances ought to be high if the <all> group is being used > responsibly (which it often isn't, in my experience). Let's > approach this from the other side -- if an element is > declared to contain a, then b, then c as children, then the > relative order of a, b and c in an instance carries no > semantics. From this Occam suggests that in cases where > there is no intention to convey different semantics with > different order among siblings, a sequence should always be > used, to avoid potential misunderstanding. _If_ this > argument is persuasive, then you should _only_ use <all> when > order _does_ matter, in which case re-arrangement changes the > meaning of the document and should be avoided. > > > Another possible question is, How does a user (either sending or > > receiving) benefit, in general, in RELAX NG, from the ability to > > interleave, say, elements A (multiple), B (multiple), and C > (multiple) > > of an "interleave", as opposed to sending all As, then all > Bs, then all > > Cs? Or possibly all Cs, then all Bs, then all As? Why is > "interleave" > > more useful than "all", and why is "all" more useful than > "sequence"? > > What do these things enable me to do, which a mere "sequence" does > > not? Why do I need the extra flexibility? > > As per the above, if you need to reflect some underlying > ordering, then you need a *ed choice or an all. Suppose for > instance you have a queue of transactions to be processed, > say some deposits and some withdrawals. If you wish their > order in the queue to be represented by their order in the > document, you can't simply put all the deposits first > followed by all the withdrawals. > > Hope this helps Many thanks, it surely helps. I would like to hear other people's views as well. Alessandro > > ht > -- > Henry S. Thompson, HCRC Language Technology Group, > University of Edinburgh > W3C Fellow 1999--2002, part-time member of W3C Team > 2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, SCOTLAND -- (44) > 131 650-4440 > Fax: (44) 131 650-4587, e-mail: ht@c... > URL: http://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~ht/ > [mail really from me _always_ has this .sig -- mail without > it is forged spam] >
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