[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: Attribute Order (Was: Create XML )
That is the explanation some advocate. I think it is brain candy for those who believe these features must have some sound basis in science, math or practice. IMO, attribute usage is largely stylistic and the main reason the feature is preserved is to keep IDs attached to the element they identify. Other means for doing that are messier. The tacit presumption is scope. Compromises made for a particular SGML application (HTML) rankled some (including me, I don't like it as a rationalization), but they were politically prudent. My only problem with attributes is that they are often misunderstood when object-oriented backgrounds are applied to markup design; thus the field/attribute impedance mismatch, and when used for dumps of relational dbs such that rows are elements and columns are attributes. len From: ari@c... [mailto:ari@c...] I'm not sure where I got it from, but I seem to have this notion that character data are what a human reader should see, while markup, including attributes, is something of a hint to software. There are characters in a document and (meta)information about the characters. Some of those metadata can be predefined, e.g., html:title, and that leads to element tags; sometimes you need free text, such as for an href, which leads to attributes. So I see three things - text, predefined metadata and free-form metadata. I can't immediately think of three more kinds of metadata I'd want in a document.
|
PURCHASE STYLUS STUDIO ONLINE TODAY!Purchasing Stylus Studio from our online shop is Easy, Secure and Value Priced! Download The World's Best XML IDE!Accelerate XML development with our award-winning XML IDE - Download a free trial today! Subscribe in XML format
|