[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: bohemians, gentry
Jonathan Robie wrote: > But I don't yet understand how the presence of a datatype can make reuse more > difficult - except, perhaps, by requiring a cast. Can you help me with a > concrete example or two? Jonathan, I think you know that this question is ignoring my larger query--the point which IMHO goes to the heart of what you are asking--which is whether datatypes inhere in the representation of data (or in something like the terms of Uche's article, whether class is intrinsic (the divine right of kings?)). Nevertheless, since you ask for angle brackets, here is a snippet from my morning's work: <PLO021204> <C37042GHW9>S5M</C37042GHW9> </PLO021204> This is actually an order to sell $5000 face of some notes. You'll have to forgive the ugly *ML, but it's a genuine sample of what comes in to me from the wild. If this were decorated with datatypes, those would presumably have to be the datatypes expected by the process for which this documents is 'intended'--the process which will handle it as an order. Such datatyping would essentially see the point of this document revolving around a USD$5000 face amount on the sell side. However, the contractor for whom I am handling this document cares only that this is one part of a larger order ('PLO') in the day's trading. That contractor's job is to keep track of how many PLO pieces are processed for each order in a given day--and the definition of what is a given order depends on how many pieces there are. The process operated by that contractor is specialized for, and understands only how to aggregate the pieces into an order, and what the definition of an order is, based on how the (potential) pieces of it are actually handled in the course of a day's trading. The software which will be used against this document understands *nothing* of the document's content, as that content would be understood in datatyping it for processing this document as an order. This means that you are asking my contractor to implement an understanding of order content--as opposed to order form--in his software, just so that he will be able to understand the datatyping of content, in order ultimately to know that such content, datatyped or not, is of no use to him and will be thrown away unused. In other words, you want me to demand an understanding in my software of what by definition of its function it will never use. Yes, that is making my life, and my contractor's--far more difficult and, yes, it is utterly unnecessary to impose that burden and, no, the problem you insist on creating cannot be solved with a simple cast. Respectfully, Walter Perry
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