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[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: attribute order
 Thanks for your thoughts.. If we see well known XML vocabularies, like say the XSLT language, we can learn a lot about XML design from these languages.. XSLT specifies - <xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" <xsl:output method="html" /> <xsl:template match="/"> and so on.. This gives idea what type of information should be elements, and what should be attributes.. Regards, Mukul --- Uche Ogbuji <uche.ogbuji@f...> wrote: > On Sun, 2005-05-08 at 09:25 -0700, Mukul Gandhi > wrote: > > --- Uche Ogbuji <uche.ogbuji@f...> > wrote: > > > It can be very dangerous thinking overall. I've > > > seen numerous examples > > > of poor XML design because of too literal a > > > translation from OO > > > concepts. Just for one example, see [1] for > > > discussion of confusion > > > that arises from the fact that most "object > > > references" in XML are > > > implicit. > > > > Now I realize, that mapping XML model(using > element > > containership and attributes) to OO paradigm is > not > > quite appropriate.. For trivial examples, we may > do > > so. But we cannot generalize this correspondence. > > Yes. > > > . I > > read your article [1]. Really a nice article. > > Thanks. > > > You have > > given an example to model a library inventory with > > XML.. I would like to say a bit about this XML > > structure you gave - > > <library> > > <name>The XML Institute Public Library</name> > > <books> > > <book isbn="0764547607"> > > <title>The XML Bible, 2nd Edition</title> > > </book> > > <book isbn="0321150406"> > > <title>Effective XML</title> > > </book> > > <book isbn="1861005946"> > > <title>Beginning XSLT</title> > > </book> > > </books> > > </library> > > > > /library/books/book containership structure seems > fine > > to me. name is a property of library (object), if > we > > model a real world concept. > > I think that "name" is a far more important > propoerty than the > artificial abstraction "books". But in the end > that's why I admit int > the article it's a matter of judgment. > > > . It could have been made a > > attribute instead of element (to me, having it as > > attribute will match the real world view better). > > I think that's a bad idea for a couple of reasons: > > 1) It's really meant for people, not machines. I > prefer to use > attributes for metadata-like things with affinity > towards machines > 2) It forbids internal structure. If after the > initial design, it turns > out there is a library within whose name we really > want to use > underlines/italics or such, we have to resort to > hacks. > > I almost always put names and titles in elements, > rather than > attributes, for reasons I elaborate on in several of > the articles in the > Principles of XML series. > > Again, this is a good example of how XML modeling > brings uo different > concerns from OO modeling. > > > > But > > here, I'll favour aesthetics than the OO > thinking.. To > > me, "name" as a child element of "library" appeals > > more aesthetically. It also seems more tool > friendly > > (like to an XML editor).. For e.g. if a > description > > becomes too long (e.g. name) , making it an > attribute > > is not quite readable. Also if there are chances > of > > existence of newline in data, I'll prefer to make > the > > information as element.. > > > > So it seems to me now, that designing an XML > document > > is also an art, than a pure science.. > > Of course it's an art. But to be fair, so is OO > modeling. Science is > deterministic, but if you put 5 OO experts in 5 > different rooms with the > same problem and had them come up with an OO design, > you'd get 5 > different results. > > > > > I think XML requires an entirely different > mind-set > > > from objects. > > > > Yes.. Now I realize! > > Yaaaay! I do think that's a very important point of > view to come to. I > also came to XML from OO, and I still work in OO, > and I've learned to > separate the two, to the benefit of both. > > > I read your artcile [2] also.. Its nice too! > > Thanks again. > > > > [1] > http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-contain.html > > > [2] http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=8596 > > -- > Uche Ogbuji > Fourthought, Inc. > http://uche.ogbuji.net > http://fourthought.com > http://copia.ogbuji.net > http://4Suite.org > Use CSS to display XML, part 2 - > http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/edu/x-dw-x-xmlcss2-i.html > XML Output with 4Suite & Amara - > http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2005/04/20/py-xml.html > Use XSLT to prepare XML for import into OpenOffice > Calc - > http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-oocalc/ > Schema standardization for top-down semantic > transparency - > http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-think31.html > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > The xml-dev list is sponsored by XML.org > <http://www.xml.org>, an > initiative of OASIS <http://www.oasis-open.org> > > The list archives are at > http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/ > > To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list use the > subscription > manager: > <http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/index.php> > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? 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