[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: XML attributes are weird
On Sun, Dec 22, 2013 at 1:49 PM, Steve Newcomb <srn@coolheads.com> wrote: > > > On 12/22/2013 05:59 AM, Alain Couthures wrote: > ... >> Yes, 'name' is a sort of mandatory attribute for elements. JSON doesn't >> define any mandatory property for objects. > ... > > JSON is fantastically useful. I use it all the time, and more every > day, it seems. > > But if I need a data/metadata distinction, JSON doesn't cut it. XML is > the interchange language of choice for that. > > The reverse is also true. XML is not the best choice if its > data/metadata distinction stands in the way of progress. > > IOW, I, like Simon, agree with Mike Kay when he says, > > "For a language designed for data interchange, the attribute/element > split would be nonsense. But for a document markup language, it makes > eminent sense." > > > I think it *may* be useful to mention here that the HyTime term "GROVE" > (officially, "Graph Representation of Property ValuEs", ugh) was > intentionally meant to acknowledge that in the SGML parse tree (the > "grove"), each element can sprout an extra tree. > > In a future, better world, > > * "metadata" will stop being a synonym for "especially underprivileged > data". IMO, there's no basis for believing that metadata doesn't > deserve metametadata, etc. > > * metadata will have the privilege of rooting a robust hierarchy, > instead of the stunted one offered by XML attributes. > > * no one will think that metadata are in any sense less important for > effective data interchange than the data themselves. > > Viva la data/metadata distinction! In many ways, this distinction is similar to the name/resource or pointer/value distinction as each level of metadata is one more level indirected. > (I can't help noticing that the White House evidently thought it > wouldn't bother anybody if "just the metadata" of all the phone calls in > the world were collected in secret. That attitude reveals something > about the widespread upside-down view of the data/metadata distinction. > Such a view is bound to die out. The problem is basically that we're > currently so used to the idea that metadata are underprivileged.) (While I agree that the handling of the recent MITM scandals are laughable, I believe the legal basis for this attitude is rooted in the case Smith v. Maryland <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_v._Maryland> where the Supreme Court found that transactional data (metadata) enjoys a lesser expectation of privacy because it must be used in the business processes of the carrier.) > _______________________________________________________________________ > > XML-DEV is a publicly archived, unmoderated list hosted by OASIS > to support XML implementation and development. To minimize > spam in the archives, you must subscribe before posting. > > [Un]Subscribe/change address: http://www.oasis-open.org/mlmanage/ > Or unsubscribe: xml-dev-unsubscribe@lists.xml.org > subscribe: xml-dev-subscribe@lists.xml.org > List archive: http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/ > List Guidelines: http://www.oasis-open.org/maillists/guidelines.php
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