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  • From: Peter Flynn <peter@s...>
  • To: xml-dev@l...
  • Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2021 15:00:39 +0100

On 03/04/2021 14:03, Roger L Costello wrote:
Hi Folks,

As you know, a restaurant that offers a buffet style of dining lays out all foods on tables and then customers select the items they want. With a set menu style of dining the customer makes a choice and that determines all the items the customer will receive.

Should an XML Schema be written like a buffet: create a long list of optional elements and then let the instance document author select whichever ones he desires?

Or should an XML Schema be written like a set menu: there is a choice and once the instance document author selects a choice, that determines all the elements for that choice?
This is known as the Prescriptive vs Descriptive choice and is covered in many books and other documents on document type design (I included a question on it in my research on editor usability, Q.3.4.3.11 on p.199 at https://cora.ucc.ie/bitstream/handle/10468/1690/Human-Interfaces-to-Structured-Documents.pdf#page=228, and there is a section also in my book on SGML and XML Tools at http://xml.silmaril.ie/downloads/markup-uses.pdf).

Generally, it should be driven by the user requirements, if these are well-known, but it may also be driven by exogenous requirements like safety.

Peter

--
Peter Flynn
Cork 🇮🇪 Ireland 🇪🇺


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