[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: Out of topic or out of interest?
Hi Mike, Mike said: > Anyway, get with the program! XML ain't about angle brackets any more, it's > about Information Items [duck] Didier replies: Yes, it seems that we are moving toward greater more abstract entities like information elements or like Rick[1] said a couple years ago "information units". We where using this concept in the early days of MCF[2] where each object was treated as an information unit. Ex: unit: object1 attribute1: value 1 attrinute2: value2 etc... Also, it seems that there are different patterns for system integration: a) integration through function calls b) integration through data I think we are witnesses of the clash between these two patterns. In case (b) xml is not well integrated as a language type and (b) seems to be the remedy (using function calls instead of data types) but with the conterpart of not seeing the XML anymore (in addition to other secondary effects already mentionned in this list). In case (a) we have direct contact with an XML format but its underlying data structure is accessed as an external entity not as a direct data type. Moreover, in (a) all semantics is lost in the process since the procedural language is dealing with elements and attributes instead of concrete objects like accounts, clients or whatever expressed as variables. If anybody resolve the impedence mismatch in a language like, for instance, in Java and provide access to the semantics entities instead of the generic abstraction of the DOM maybe the average developer would be more inclined to expreiment with integration through data intead of integration through function calls. Anyway, I can say too that this thread helped me increase my understanding of the problem from both sides of the fence. [2] The XML and SGML Cookbook (Recipes for structured information) Rick Jelliffe. [1] RDF ancestor, created during the Apple's Project X cheers Didier PH Martin
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