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

Re: bohemians, gentry


bohemians
At 02:10 PM 12/4/2002 -0500, W. E. Perry wrote:

>Well of course it interferes--specifically, it tightly constrains 
>reuse--unless
>that reuse is itself predicated on throwing aside the datatypes provided, 
>and isn't
>that petitio principii?

petitio principii = "begging the question" = assuming the conclusion in the 
premise?

My question was:

"Why does the presence of a data type prevent reuse, since you can always 
throw it away? Can you show me an example where this causes problems?"

The data type provides additional information about the data. You can feel 
free to discard this information if you don't need it, or to use it to 
reinterpret the data, or to use the data as is. I am trying to think of a 
concrete example where the presence of this data really gets in the way.

I think Jeff's point was that it causes overhead, since the additional 
information is just being thrown away. That's true. And in specifications 
where data types are not particularly useful, it adds needless complexity. 
Both of these are concrete points that I understand and accept.

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


PURCHASE STYLUS STUDIO ONLINE TODAY!

Purchasing Stylus Studio from our online shop is Easy, Secure and Value Priced!

Buy Stylus Studio Now

Download The World's Best XML IDE!

Accelerate XML development with our award-winning XML IDE - Download a free trial today!

Don't miss another message! Subscribe to this list today.
Email
First Name
Last Name
Company
Subscribe in XML format
RSS 2.0
Atom 0.3
 

Stylus Studio has published XML-DEV in RSS and ATOM formats, enabling users to easily subcribe to the list from their preferred news reader application.


Stylus Studio Sponsored Links are added links designed to provide related and additional information to the visitors of this website. they were not included by the author in the initial post. To view the content without the Sponsor Links please click here.

Site Map | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Trademarks
Free Stylus Studio XML Training:
W3C Member
Stylus Studio® and DataDirect XQuery ™are products from DataDirect Technologies, is a registered trademark of Progress Software Corporation, in the U.S. and other countries. © 2004-2013 All Rights Reserved.