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Re: malfunctioning, evil adult as XML

• To: "Andrew Layman" <andrewl@m...>
• Subject: Re: malfunctioning, evil adult as XML
• From: Uche Ogbuji <uche.ogbuji@f...>
• Date: Sat, 01 Feb 2003 10:36:49 -0700
• Cc: xml-dev@l...
• In-reply-to: Message from "Andrew Layman" <andrewl@m...> of "Thu, 30 Jan 2003 23:01:19 PST." <9B9A5456AFE99E4181416B252F63BDA207C4BBDA@r...>
• Sender: Uche Ogbuji <uche.ogbuji@f...>

> James Clark wrote: "RE: - they ought to have be able to structured
> values, just like elements (i.e. one could view the content of an
> element as a special unnamed attribute), .."
> 
> Agreed.  Attributes are highly useful as a means to attach metadata or
> annotations to elements.  Metadata itself may have structure and may
> have metadata, hence the utility of structured attributes and attributes
> of attributes.
> 
> The obvious syntactic device (in a future version of XML) for a
> structured attribute is something that looks much like an element, e.g.

[Interesting example snipped]

I can understand and respect the motivations for this, but I personally do not 
believe the benefits would be worth the disruption of such a fundamental 
aspect of XML.

I manage structured information through attributes all the time.  The way I do 
this is to make the attributes contain a term from a controlled vocabulary 
maintained elsewhere: frequently in RDF, sometimes in just other general XML 
formats.

I know that some folks here cannot abide such solutions, but in practical 
work, they do very well for me, and for many others.  In fact, I think this 
pattern improves design, and that fully atructured attributes would tend to 
encourage designs that suffer from excessive coupling.  That said, potential 
misuse is never really a solid primary argument for avoiding any feature.


-- 
Uche Ogbuji                                    Fourthought, Inc.
http://uche.ogbuji.net    http://4Suite.org    http://fourthought.com
The open office file format  - http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/librar
y/x-think15/
Python Generators + DOM - http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2003/01/08/py-xml.html
4Suite Repository Features - https://www6.software.ibm.com/reg/devworks/dw-x4su
ite5-i/
XML class warfare - http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=6965

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