[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. Or is there a different task that you want me to perform? Give me a concrete task, and lets see whether the presence or absence of datatypes interferes with the task. >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? Jonathan
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