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Re: XML is Like a Box of Chocolates

• From: Peter Flynn <peter@silmaril.ie>
• To: xml-dev@lists.xml.org
• Date: Sun, 04 Mar 2012 18:27:32 +0000

On 04/03/12 14:05, Costello, Roger L. wrote:
[...]
> What's the meaning of this organization?
> 
> Obviously it has no meaning. It is simply the way I organized my 
> chocolates. To attach meaning to this organization is assigning 
> meaning where none exists.

In the case of data, where the individual items (chocolates) have no
intrinsic meaning, this is probably true.

In the case of text, where each sentence and word does have a meaning,
the way you organise them is likely to be of some importance.

> An XML document is just an organization of data. Organization has no 
> meaning. Be careful that you don't implicitly assign meaning where
> none exists.

By the same token, be careful that you don't fail to assign meaning
explicitly where it is needed. The <title> element as the first child of
a <chapter> element is important (the clue is in the name "title").

> For example, XML attributes are not "meta-data" and they have no 
> "scope".

On the contrary, attributes can be used as metadata if done carefully.

> Analogously, it would be foolhardy to claim that because the 
> chocolate bar is hooked onto the "Chocolates" box it is somehow 
> "meta-chocolate" and it "scopes" all the chocolates inside the box.

I had assumed that it was more like an SGML inclusion exception :-) A
little like those solid chocolate make-weights that honest chocolatiers
used to include in a box when the aggregate weight of each chocolate
fell short of the net weight printed on the box. Something we lost when
moving to XML :-)

> XML documents can be processed any way you want. There is no right 
> way.

Unfortunately not true where text is concerned. Storing or processing
the paragraphs of a chapter in reverse order and putting the title at
the end of the chapter might be pleasing to the Dadaists but is not
normally useful to the reader.

///Peter

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: XML is Like a Box of Chocolates
    • From: Jim Melton <jim.melton@oracle.com>

• References:
  • XML is Like a Box of Chocolates
    • From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>