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Re: XML is Like a Box of Chocolates

• From: Jim Melton <jim.melton@oracle.com>
• To: Peter Flynn <peter@silmaril.ie>
• Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2012 10:23:55 -0700

Peter, Roger, et al,

At 3/4/2012 11:27 AM, Peter Flynn wrote:
>On 04/03/12 14:05, Costello, Roger L. wrote:
>...
>
>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").

And therein lies extreme danger.  I, like (one would hope) most XML 
vocabulary designers, specify element names and attribute names that 
are somehow mnemonic to their intended usage.

However, as a document author, not to mention the author of tools 
intended to process XML that uses such a vocabulary, I MUST NOT go by 
intuition to decide how to mark up my document or how to process 
documents.  I MUST know the vocabulary designer's intended meaning or 
I'm likely to screw things up royally.  Element names might be 
"clues", but they are not "proof" of anything.

(For example: Is a book "title" 'the same as' a person's "title"?  Is 
it 'the same as' the "title" to a piece of property -- real estate, 
vehicle, etc.?  Is it always a noun, or sometimes a verb, or even an 
adjective -- when used in those different ways, the structure 
[attributes, children] might be different and the processing is 
almost certainly different.)

Hope this helps,
    Jim

========================================================================
Jim Melton --- Editor of ISO/IEC 9075-* (SQL)     Phone: +1.801.942.0144
   Chair, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC32 and W3C XML Query WG    Fax : +1.801.942.3345
Oracle Corporation        Oracle Email: jim dot melton at oracle dot com
1930 Viscounti Drive      Alternate email: jim dot melton at acm dot org
Sandy, UT 84093-1063 USA  Personal email: SheltieJim at xmission dot com
========================================================================
=  Facts are facts.   But any opinions expressed are the opinions      =
=  only of myself and may or may not reflect the opinions of anybody   =
=  else with whom I may or may not have discussed the issues at hand.  =
========================================================================  

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: XML is Like a Box of Chocolates
    • From: cbullard@hiwaay.net

• References:
  • XML is Like a Box of Chocolates
    • From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>
  • Re: XML is Like a Box of Chocolates
    • From: Peter Flynn <peter@silmaril.ie>