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Andrew Welch scripsit:
> Point 5.1 is interesting:
>
> "All elements MUST contain either nothing, character content, or child
> elements. Mixed content MUST NOT be used. [Rationale: Many XML data
> models don't handle mixed content properly, and its use makes the
> element order-dependent. As always, textual formats are not covered
> by this rule.]"
>
> I'm guessing you mean don't use mixed content for data centric xml?
From the third paragraph of the introduction:
# This guide is meant for the design of XML that is to be generated
# and consumed by machines rather than human beings. Its rules are not
# applicable to formats such as XHTML (which should be formatted as much
# like HTML as possible) or ODF which are meant to express rich text.
> Also 5.2
>
> "XML elements that merely wrap repeating child elements SHOULD NOT be
> used. [Rationale: They are not used in Atom and add nothing.]"
>
> They really are helpful - I'm having to process xml like this at the
> moment and it is a bit tedious, as typically the output will have some
> form of wrapper. For example given:
>
> <item>a</item>
> <item>b</item>
>
> to output that as a html list:
>
> <ul>
> <il>a</li>
> ...
>
> you need to create the wrapper <ul> on the first occurrence of <item>,
> then process the rest from there.
A list of bullet points is a unified object, and an enclosing element
makes total sense. What I was arguing against was this sort of thing:
<person>
<name>Barack Obama</i>
<children>
<child>Malia Ann Obama</child>
<child>Natasha Obama</child>
</children>
<employment>
<job from="1997" to="2004">State senator</job>
<job from="2005" to="2008">Senator</job>
<job from="2008">President</job>
</employment>
</person>
This looks pretty, but the "children" and "employment" elements don't really
add anything to the semantics.
If I were redoing this now, I'd add a rule saying "If order doesn't matter,
pick a fixed order such as alphabetical order or some kind of natural order.
Allowing order to be free but meaningless encourages the creation of
undocumented communications channels."
--
No, John. I want formats that are actually John Cowan
useful, rather than over-featured megaliths that http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
address all questions by piling on ridiculous cowan@c...
internal links in forms which are hideously
over-complex. --Simon St. Laurent on xml-dev
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