• From: Toivo Lainevool <tlainevool@y...>
• To: xml-dev@i..., "W. Eliot Kimber" <eliot@i...>
• Date: Wed, 29 Dec 1999 09:37:20 -0800 (PST)

--- "W. Eliot Kimber" <eliot@i...> wrote:
> Yes, this is I think the closest programming analog to document
> architectures. When an element in a document is mapped to some
> architectural element, you are saying "my element 'foo' conforms to the
> rules for architectural element 'bar', in addition to whatever else I
> might say a 'foo' is."  That lets a user or processor of the document
> know something about the elements in it without having to know
> everything.  I think that is analogous to saying "objects that implement
> the 'foo' interface must provide properties A, B, and C, implement
> methods D, E, and F, and accept messages G, H, and I".
> 
> I like the interface analogy better than the "inheritance" analogy
> because it stresses the contract aspect of the relationship and does not
> imply any of the things that inheritance implies (which architectures do
> not provide, not being about program objects but about inert data
> elements).
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> E.

I think an even better match from programming is the "Adapter" pattern from
GoF[1].  To quote from the book an Adapter is used to "Convert the interface of
a class into another interface clients expect.  Adapter lets classes work
together that couldn't otherwise because of incompatible interfaces."
If you change "class" to "document type" in the above, I think this gives a
perfect description of the intent of document architectures.

Toivo Lainevool

[1] Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software.  Gamma,
Helm, Johnson, Vlissides.



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