I vote for Kemp's thoughts. HTML and XML are merely contrived formats (wrappers). There are other ways to represent the data (streams). The elemental datum should somehow maintained in their elemental state. Attributes associated to them should be tied to, but separate from the datum. The moment you slide the datum into one of these wrappers, all the inherent problems surface. I like to think of these wrappers as a final product typically used for display. Some people think the wrappered(datum) should be elemental elements and stored as such. Sure makes it difficult to navigate/edit/maintain the elemental datum unless you buy into the wrappered stuff deeply. They complicate simple ordinary needs incredibly. And they place ensuing requirements upon all interfacing systems by their presence.
Just my 2cent worth (not worth much)(these days). Dick > I too have a major problem with HTML and XML heirarchical structure - it's > not the way most things work. > > What we are doing is cramming arbitarily-structured information into a > predefined heirarchy. What we should be doing is assigning appropriate > structures to the information as required by (a) the intrinsic structure of > the content, (b) the relationship between the information and the > application, and ((c) the structure of the application itself. All 3 are > different and should be separable, and NONE of them are always heirarchical. > > Kemp Download NeoPlanet at http://www.neoplanet.com -- To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe" in the subject, without the quotes.
