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Re: XML attributes are weird

• From: Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com>
• To: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>
• Date: Sat, 21 Dec 2013 21:11:22 +0000

Attributes betray the origins of XML as a document markup language. The text nodes contain the content, the attributes contain the information used for formatting the text.

For a language designed for data interchange, the attribute/element split would be nonsense. But for a document markup language, it makes eminent sense.

Michael Kay
Saxonica


On 21 Dec 2013, at 20:39, Costello, Roger L. <costello@mitre.org> wrote:

> Hi Folks,
> 
> Why did the founding fathers of XML create attributes?
> 
> XML attributes are weird. 
> 
> They make XML documents dirty, messy, cluttered, and, well, ugly.
> 
> XML elements are a perfectly satisfying way of defining name-value pairs. XML attributes is a special (i.e., extra, extraneous, redundant) way of including name-value pairs in the XML. That's awful.
> 
> Unless ....... the creators of XML intended attributes for another purpose.
> 
> I am reading a wonderful book on parsing and it talks about extending grammars with attributes; those attributes are used to specify the grammar's semantics.
> 
> Hey, XML is a grammar: that's what XSD and RNG are all about, they define grammars.
> 
> So maybe what the founding fathers of XML really had in mind with attributes is that they be used to enrich XML grammars with semantic information?
> 
> Are any of the original founding fathers of XML out there? What were you thinking when you put attributes into XML? Perhaps you were thinking of attribute grammars?
> 
> /Roger
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: XML attributes are weird
    • From: Alain Couthures <alain.couthures@agencexml.com>
  • Re: XML attributes are weird
    • From: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@simonstl.com>

• References:
  • XML attributes are weird
    • From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>