[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: bohemians, gentry
> At 02:51 PM 12/4/2002 -0500, W. E. Perry wrote: > >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?)). > > I don't really understand your larger query. I'm pretty sure it's different > from the question I was asking. How do I know whether datatypes inhere or not? > > >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. > > [[[ !!! SNIP !!! ]]] > > >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. > > So you want me to get all of the elements whose names start with "PLO", > without paying attention to the datatype, and put it onto an order? In XQuery: > > <order> > { > input()//*[starts-with(local-name(.), "PLO")] > } > </order> > > That works the same way with or without datatypes in the data. Huh? From what I read here, you picked a random example of a code use case out of a hat. I have no idea what the relevance is of your snippet above. > >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. > > I don't know why you would use datatypes with this particular data, since > S5M does not seem to be a value for any numeric datatype in XML Schema. But > their presence or absence doesn't really change the query I gave above. Can > you describe some queries you think might be hard if datatypes are present? Why? I don't see that Walter said that "any queries might be hard". The questions seems entirely out of point. -- Uche Ogbuji Fourthought, Inc. http://uche.ogbuji.net http://4Suite.org http://fourthought.com Tour of 4Suite - http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/10/16/py-xml.html Proper XML Output in Python - http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/11/13/py-xml.html RSS for Python - http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-pyth11.html Debug XSLT on the fly - http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-debugxs.html
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