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Re: Re: XML element names

• From: Elliotte Harold <elharo@m...>
• Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2008 09:10:15 -0800

David Carver wrote:

> Michael, I would have to disagree with this. EDI had/has cryptic 
> characters and if you are an end user trying to figure out why a message 
> isn't coming in as you expect, unless you know the spec inside and out 
> for the message being sent, it is very time consuming trying to debug 
> what is wrong. The same thing hold's true for XML files and elements and 
> attribute names. A human eventually has to look at it at some point 
> during the development process. Even programmers, and I know many that 
> prefer something they can read and decipher, as opposed to the other 
> formats that require more intiment knowledge of the spec (i.e. 
> <2A3></2A3> what does that actually mean?? as opposed to 
> <PurchaseOrderID></PurchaseOrderID>).

I absolutely agree, but Michael's point may be that when dealing with 
XML names we don't require absolute fidelity. It's OK to use an 
underscore instead of a space or a apostrophe, and make various other 
changes as long as the intent is still reasonably clear. In markup 
and/or code no one gets too bent out of shape if they see resume where 
one would expect resumé. They're just happy it's not rsm or, worse yet, 
2A3. :-)

-- 
Elliotte Rusty Harold  elharo@m...
Java I/O 2nd Edition Just Published!
http://www.cafeaulait.org/books/javaio2/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0596527500/ref=nosim/cafeaulaitA/

• References:
  • Re: Ten Years Later - XML 1.0 Fifth Edition?
    • From: "Mukul Gandhi" <gandhi.mukul@g...>
  • Re: Ten Years Later - XML 1.0 Fifth Edition?
    • From: Nicholas Sushkin <nsushkin@o...>
  • Re: Ten Years Later - XML 1.0 Fifth Edition?
    • From: "Mukul Gandhi" <gandhi.mukul@g...>
  • XML element names (was: Ten Years Later - XML 1.0 Fifth Edition?)
    • From: Nicholas Sushkin <nsushkin@o...>
  • Re: XML element names (was: Ten Years Later - XML 1.0 Fifth Edition?)
    • From: "Mukul Gandhi" <gandhi.mukul@g...>
  • Re: XML element names (was: Ten Years Later - XML 1.0 Fifth Edition?)
    • From: "Mukul Gandhi" <gandhi.mukul@g...>
  • Re: Re: XML element names (was: Ten Years Later - XML 1.0 Fifth Edition?)
    • From: Liam Quin <liam@w...>
  • RE: Re: XML element names (was: Ten Years Later - XML 1.0 Fifth Edition?)
    • From: "Michael Kay" <mike@s...>
  • Re: Re: XML element names
    • From: David Carver <d_a_carver@y...>