• To: xml-dev@l...
• Subject: Re: Attribute Order (Was: Create XML )
• From: David Megginson <david@m...>
• Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2003 19:26:45 -0400
• In-reply-to: <30.41cb03f7.2c278d3c@a...>
• References: <30.41cb03f7.2c278d3c@a...>

AndrewWatt2000@a... writes:

 > > Personally, I'm not convinced that attributes were a great
 > > idea. Though they were a much better idea than namespaces.
 > 
 > What do you feel would have been better, rather than having
 > attributes?

This is a debate that long predates XML.  You'd have something like

  <a>
   <href>http://www.megginson.com/</href>
   Megginson Technologies Ltd.
  </a>

instead of

  <a href="http://www.megginson.com/">Megginson Technologies Ltd.</a>

There is no information that I can think of that could not be
represented in XML or SGML without attributes, and attributes add a
noticeable amount of additional complexity to XML APIs.

Personally, I like attributes and I'm glad that we took them from
SGML, but I won't pretend that there's any justification other than
stylistic preference.


All the best,


David

-- 
David Megginson, david@m..., http://www.megginson.com/

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