xml-dev - #PCDATA "element": Yes!

[Stefan Haustein <haustein@kimo.cs.uni-dortmund.de>]

Nils Klarlund wrote:
> 
> An alternative approach would have declared "content" to simply
> consist of just element nodes and text nodes ("text nodes" as in
> XPATH) representing character data.  Then there would be no need for
> (2), since a content model now describes a regular language over the
> alphabet consisting of what you would expect: element names and the
> token text() (or #PCDATA).  And, you'd be able to describe, say, HTML
> with Appendix elements that must appear at the end:
> 
>   ((#PCDATA | H1 | H2 |...)*, Appendix*)
> 
> So, the distinction between element content and mixed content is a
> needless one that both restricts what can be expressed and that
> muddles the conceptual framework.  (The way of treating content just
> outlined is what we chose for the DSD schema notation, incidentally.)

I was already wondering why this was not done in the current XML 
schema definition: In my opinion, the whole concept of a "content 
model" could be removed, removing some possibilities for 
inconsistencies: Implementing XML schema, you are always wondering 
about things like "what, if the given content type 'empty', and an
explicit <type> is given. Does the given type override the content 
specification? Do I trow an error? But maybe the given type 
is empty, too, so I need to check for consistency.....  

Best regards

Stefan

-- 
Stefan Haustein
University of Dortmund
Computer Science VIII
www-ai.cs.uni-dortmund.de

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