Re: XML 1.0 - Element order significance

[ht@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Henry S. Thompson)]

John Cowan <jcowan@reutershealth.com> writes:

> Tim Bray wrote:
> 
> > [I]f the doc has
> > 
> > <brothers><matt /><jim /><luke /><dave /></brothers>
> > 
> > then if I don't see them in the order (m, j, l, d) that they
> > appear in the document, something is wrong.  Software that 
> > rearranged the elements as part of processing would be broken;
> 
> Absolutely.  Unfortunately, such software is not actually
> out of compliance with XML 1.0.
> 
> > As to whether the order is "significant" in the human/design/business
> > sense, that is totally language-specific, and I don't agree with
> > Henry that you can reverse-engineer it from the DTD. -Tim
> 
> I think HST's point is sound, though his wording
> may be unfortunate.  Let me attempt to paraphrase:
> 
> a) 
> If the elements MUST appear in a specified
> 	order (according to the DTD or whatever),
> 	then the order CANNOT convey any additional
> 	information to the application.
> 
> b) 
> If the elements MAY appear in any order (again
> 	according to the DTD or whatever), then the order
> 	which actually appears MAY convey additional
> 	information to the application.

What he said.

ht
-- 
  Henry S. Thompson, HCRC Language Technology Group, University of Edinburgh
          W3C Fellow 1999--2001, part-time member of W3C Team
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