[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message]

RE: semantic overloading

• From: Nicolas LEHUEN <nicolas.lehuen@u...>
• To: "'Simon St.Laurent'" <simonstl@s...>,"'xml-dev@l...'" <xml-dev@l...>
• Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 15:36:59 +0200

I'm going to anticipate the upcoming debate here ;). Contrary to what Rick
may think (as a follow-up to the "enlightement" thread) I do agree with the
sentence "avoid semantic overloading when possible". Supporting
context-sensitive local element names does not means that I try to have as
many duplicate element names as possible when designing a schema.

Context-sensitive local elements are just a way to better handle the name
clashes that can appear when a schema evoluates, that's all.

Context-sensitiveness is also a way to allow for richer semantics. It
assumes that a single name is not sufficient to capture all possible
semantics. Sometimes, you have to embed names into other names and so on to
reflect some complex semantics. That's why XML is successfull in
representing documents or complex structures, whereas other technologies
with less possibilities for building context are less efficient.

Regards,
Nicolas

>-----Message d'origine-----
>De : Simon St.Laurent [mailto:simonstl@s...]
>Envoyé : mercredi 29 août 2001 19:05
>À : xml-dev@l...
>Objet : semantic overloading
>
>
>The W3C has just released a Working Draft of XML Accessibility
>Guidelines:
>http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlgl
>
>Perhaps especially worth noting in regard to the recent namespace
>discussions is this bit:
>http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlgl#cp2_8
>
>> If an element name may be confused, within the context of the 
>> document instance, then it is said to be overloaded. If each element 
>> name is unique within context it is easier to access the 
>> document semantics. 
>
>I think they mean "document instance context", given the examples which
>follow.
>
>It's some genuinely interesting stuff.
>
>Simon St.Laurent
>http://simonstl.com
>
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>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 elist use the subscription
>manager: <http://lists.xml.org/ob/adm.pl>
>

• Prev by Date: Re: [Q] Open-source Lisp XML Parser?
• Next by Date: Problems with a servlet and SAX
• Previous by thread: RE: semantic overloading
• Next by thread: RE: How to specify a Processing Instruction? (better: how to cont rolencoding on saving)
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread