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At 9:49 AM +1100 11/12/01, Marcus Carr wrote: >What if they do want to but are not able to? Then we can't fix it for them, and I also mean we can't fix it for them by using a processing instruction instead of an attribute either. > I'm not being deliberately obtuse - I >just don't buy the idea that this is a simple matter of choice. You >seem happy to >marginalise the largest and most complex XML implementations (since >they'd be the >hardest to change) - I'm not satisfied that's the right thing to do. >There's no >point in telling me over and over that they should just update the >DTD. They can't. > I'm willing to believe they can't update their DTD, but if they can't update their DTD I don't believe they can update their processing software to support a new PI either. The DTD is the simplest thing to change in this case. In another thread you just wrote: The example of a bank was used earlier - here are three reasons that they would refuse to add the attribute to their DTD: a) it invalidates all of my existing data b) I will need to upgrade the software that [insert number here] people are using c) I have no easy way of guaging the impact on the transition into my backend database Your points b and c apply equally to adding a processing instruction. The only thing PIs would give instead of an attribute is validity. The cost of the changing the software is the same with a PI or an attribute. The fear of problems that may arise when this new stuff gets dumped into the existing database is the same. -- +-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+ | Elliotte Rusty Harold | elharo@m... | Writer/Programmer | +-----------------------+------------------------+-------------------+ | The XML Bible, 2nd Edition (Hungry Minds, 2001) | | http://www.ibiblio.org/xml/books/bible2/ | | http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0764547607/cafeaulaitA/ | +----------------------------------+---------------------------------+ | Read Cafe au Lait for Java News: http://www.cafeaulait.org/ | | Read Cafe con Leche for XML News: http://www.ibiblio.org/xml/ | +----------------------------------+---------------------------------+
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